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SOCIAL 
ENTERTAINMENTS 



A BOOK OF PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 
FOR ENTERTAINING 



BY 

LILLIAN PASCAL DAY 



Illustrated from Photographs 



NEW YORK 
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

1914 






Copyright, 1914, by 
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 



All Rights Reserved 
I, April, 1914 



JUL -71914 

©C1,A376595 



To 
A PLAYMATE WHO PASSED 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGB 

I. January i 

Midwinter Merrymaking: A Lemon 
Party; A Tea Parade. 

II. February 9 

The Two Birthdays; A Valentine 
Party. 

III. March 17 

Fun for St. Patrick's Day; Hibernian 
Hijinks. Easter: The Rabbit Sisters at 
Home; Hidden Hares. 

IV. April 22 

Hints on April Fooling; A Pageant of 
Birthday Jewels. 

V. May 40 

Hints for May Parties: Maypole 
Dance; May at Hide-and-Seek; May 
Day Luncheon. 

yi. June 48 

Showers for June Brides-Elect: A 
Cook Booklet Shower ; A Paper Shower 
for a Blue Bird Bride. Flag Day Ex- 
ercises. A Parcel Post Party. 



xii CONTENTS 

CBAFIES PAGE 

VII. July 6i 

A Fourth of July Breakfast. A Rain- 
bow Party. 

VIII. August ....... 70 

A Melon Frolic. 

IX. September 76 

A Golden Rod Party. A Seed Party. 

X. October 86 

An Autumn Leaf Tea. A Black Cat 
Party; New Guessing Games for Hal- 
lowe'en. 

XI. November loi 

Time for Turkey: Games for Thanks- 
giving Time: Charades. Fruit Fair 
Frolic; A Secret Orchard. 

XII. December 117 

A Snow Fete. Watching the Old Year 
Out: A Farewell Party to the Old 
Year. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Ready for a May Party .... Front 
Paying a Forfeit at a Lemon Party 


ispiece i^' 

FACING 
PAGE 

4 • 


Suggestions for St. Valentine's Day 


10 -- 


Choosing Partners 


. 13 


The Rabbit Sisters at Home . . , 


. 22 


April Fool Decorations .... 


30 


Blue Bird Place Cards ..... 


. 47 


Fortune Favors the Brave .... 


65 


Melon Shooting on the Beach 


73 ^ 


Favor at a Golden-Rod Party 


77 


Invitation to an Autumn Leaf Tea 


87 


An Assortment of Hallowe'en Costumes 


94 


Children's Tableau 


106 * 


Invitation for Fruit Fair Frolic . 


108 


Shooting Polar Bears 


122 


Our Lady of Snows . , . , , 


123 ,.^ 



xiii 



FOREWORD 

Dear Young Folks — of whatever age, from 
fifteen to fifty : 

Let's play. That sounds young enough, 
doesn't it? I hope we shall never grow too old 
to play at some kind of fun-making game, even 
if it is only a merry make-believe to help us to 
forget those tiresome lessons we all must pore 
over in the school of life. 

Fun. That's the watchword and the pass- 
word for us — something to refresh and hearten 
us so that we may go back to our problems 
with a new zest. So now let us get together 

and play "What shall we play?" A 

question, if not as old as Adam, at least as old 
as the young Cain and Abel. 

Games? Yes. Charades? Perhaps. The 
piano? When it fits into the entertainment; 
perhaps even a real playlet to be acted out 
upon our own home or school stage. In short, 



FOREWORD 

any kind of play, just so it be fair play, and the 
newer the better. Anything that has a "hap- 
pyfier" in it. 

Do you wish to evolve something different 
in the way of new costumes for your masquer- 
ade, or novel decorations for your High 
School dance? Do you want new ideas, or 
fresh frills on old ones when planning for your 
next party? 

If you are in doubt as to what to do to 
amuse your guests at any seasonable gathering 
— a May party, a lawn fete, a bride shower, or 
any quest with wholesome fun as its object, 
just turn these pages and see what you'll -see. 

This little book aims to be a central supply 
station, a sort of clearing-house for home-made 
fun. Its one aim is to start the ball of fun 
a-rolling; it grows as it goes, you know, like a 
snowball, fast and furious, till it is ready to 
burst with laughter at the foot of the evening. 
And very often the smallest nucleus of a 
thought pebble will end up the hugest ball of 
all and the merriest racer down the hilL 

''He is a benefactor who makes men laugh," 
so if in the press of this sad old workaday 



FOREWORD 

world we have helped to add to the sum of hu- 
man laughter, we shall count these bits of fun- 
making among the benefactions of life. 

In conclusion, the author desires to express 
her appreciation to the Butterick Publishing 
Company for permission to reprint certain of 
these articles which have already appeared in 
the Woman's Magazine. 

Lillian Pascal Day. 



Social Entertainments 

JANUARY 

MIDWINTER MERRYMAKING 

A LEMON PARTY 

The nucleus of this first month's fun-ball, 
paradoxically enough, was the lowly but un- 
humble lemon, prominent in musical comedy 
and "American slanguage." 

During the midwinter holiday vacation the 
members of one High School sorority gave a 
Lemon Party to another in the same school. 
This delicately conveyed the good-humored 
attitude of most sororities toward their rivals. 

The invitations were lettered in green upon 
yellow cardboard, cut lemon-shaped, and con- 
tained the following bit of rhymed nonsense : 

"The postman will hand you this lemon, 
But don't let it make you look sour; 
For we want you to put your best gem on, 
Likewise your best clothes, for an hour 



2 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Or two of young jollity, 
With a little frivolity, 
Mixed in laughter and song. 
Bring a lemon along. 
Come and prove superiority 
To your rival sorority. 
January first. Alpha Delta Omega." 

Among the decorations in Alpha Hall on 
the evening of New^ Year's Day were festoons 
of yellow^ paper flower garlands, yellow chrys- 
anthemums in brass bowls, flags and candle 
shades of lemon-colored crepe paper and the 
amber glow of Japanese lanterns. Copper 
jars and gilt candlesticks helped to carry out 
the color scheme. The receiving line of girls 
wore the Alpha colors, gold and green, in 
gown or sash or hair ornaments. 

The visiting sisterhood had put heads to- 
gether, and decided to give a fillip to the even- 
ing's fun by taking, literally, as they said, the 
words of the invitation which bade them to 
"bring a lemon along," so in addition to the 
fruit requested they were each accompanied 
by two boy escorts — also by way of "proving 
superiority" they brought refreshments for 
this addition to the company. 



A LEMON PARTY 5 

The favors were yellow aprons of crepe pa- 
per with flower borders, and paper caps. As 
there were not enough of these provided be- 
forehand for the unexpected men guests, they 
all set to work to fashion improvised aprons 
from rolls of paper. Soon the boys were also 
masquerading in cardboard caps and ladylike 
aprons — which detracted no whit from the 
lively spirits of the party. 

A maid at the door received the real lemons, 
which were taken to the kitchen, the seeds ex- 
tracted and placed in a glass jar, the pulp go- 
ing into the punch bowl. The jar of seeds 
later became the center of a jolly guessing 
game, the one coming nearest to the correct 
number of seeds receiving a prize of a lemon- 
ade set, the booby falling heir to a lemon- 
squeezer. 

Pencils and paper were given out and five 
minutes allowed for an essay on "Lemons." 
Some of these when read aloud proved to be 
most clever and witty. The hostesses next set 
up ten-pins, and gave out lemons to be used 
in place of balls for bowling; score was kept, 
the highest being awarded a large wax lemon 



4 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

filled with bonbons — while to the booby fell 
a moldy lemon. 

Next, a large empty tub was set on a table 
in the middle of the room, and each guest was 
allowed three minutes to toss as many lemons 
as possible into the tub from a given distance. 
After this, a lemon hunt was instituted, amid 
much scrambling and laughter, the merriment 
reaching a climax when the loser in the game, 
who had not found a single lemon, was com- 
pelled to pay a forfeit — eating a lemon, raw 
and unsweetened. If he faltered, the others 
pelted him with lemons. The ordeal proved 
good for his throat and the onlookers, but not 
particularly pleasing to the victim himself, 
judging from his wry face while accomplish- 
ing the feat. 

The refreshments consisted of fruit punch, 
lemonade, chicken salad served in half shells 
of lemons, sandwiches tied with yellow and 
green baby ribbon, coffee, lemon and orange 
ices and lemon cake. The supper favors were 
small yellow boxes filled with lemon and lime 
drops. 

If you cared to go even further into this 



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A TEA PARADE 5 

idea, you might ask the guests to wear yellow. 
The ever-ready crepe paper, both plain and 
flowered, and cloth lemons appliqued among 
green cloth leaves over the girls' dresses, will 
figure prominently in the costumes. 

At one lemon party a clown in orange and 
yellow appeared, also a boy who had painted 
his face yellow, wore a queue, wadded blouse 
and Chinese shoes, and posed as a "Chinese 
Lemon" ! 

A TEA PARADE 

Divide the company into two parts, as in 
charades,~guessers and paraders. One group 
retires into an adjoining room, while those 
who remain are supplied with pencils and 
slips of paper which have been listed with the 
first ten numerals. They are instructed that 
each parader represents a kind of "tea." 

The paraders enter in single file and pass 
slowly, each wearing on his bosom a large 
placard bearing his number. Opposite this 
number on the paper slips the guessers are to 
write one guess as to the kind of "tea" he rep- 
resents. 



6 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Number i. Dances in, capers around in 
high glee, whistling or singing. 
Gai-tea. 

2. Enters juggling two or three 
balls or knives or plates — any 
simple feat in parlor magic will 
do. Dexteri-tea. 

3. Girl passes demurely, eyes cast 
down, lips pursed primly, pull- 
ing skirts down over ankles. 
Modes-tea. 

4. Boy in robe and rosary of a 
priest walks slowly, eyes lifted, 
counting beads. Pie-tea. 

5. Girl draped in bunting, wearing 
liberty cap, carrying Stars and 
Stripes. Liber-tea. 

6 and 7. Two boys, one in rags, 
whining like a beggar; number 
seven meets him, puts hand in 
pocket, brings out a dollar bill, 
bestows on the beggar and passes 
on. Generosi-tea. 



A TEA PARADE 



7 



8 and 9. Girl in robe with long 
train — tinsel crown and scepter 
— very haughty. Royal-tea. 
Number 9 is a boy in uniform 
of a footman, very obsequious, 
carrying end of train. Servili- 
tea. 

10. Crowd breaks in, laughing, 
chattering, singing, hopping, 
skipping, etc. Hilari-tea. 

Part Two 

The lists with names of guessers signed at 
the top are now handed in, and the paraders 
exchange places with the guessers. They take 
their turn at finding out the kinds of "tea" in 
the following: 

Number i. Girl all in white. Puri-tea. 

2. Boy holding up electric light 
bulb like a torch. Electrici-tea. 
(If you live out of reach of elec- 
tric service, your audience will 
"catch on" if you carry the cat, 



SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

stroking her back till the sparks 
show.) 

3. Prettiest girl in the crowd. 
Beau-tea. 

4 and 5. Girl knitting or sewing. 
Thrif-tea. Number five, a boy, 
follows her, pulling her braids 
of hair. Audaci-tea. 

6 and 7. Girl and boy, arm in arm, 
gazing soulfuUy into each 
other's eyes, absorbed in love- 
making. Felici-tea. 

8. Two boys chasing and dodging 
each other around the room. 
Agili-tea. 

9 and 10. Boy making a speech, 
very affected and bombastic, 
deep voice, chest puffed out, ex- 
treme gestures. Pomposi-tea. 
Crowd follows, cheering, clap- 
ping hands and applauding the 
speaker. Populari-tea. 



FEBRUARY 
THE TWO BIRTHDAYS 

A VALENTINE PARTY 

The month of February is triply entertain- 
ing, considered from the Good-Times point of 
view, since it has three notable days to cele- 
brate — the birthdays of Lincoln and Washing- 
ton, and dear old Saint Valentine's day, be- 
loved of lovers the world over. 

For the two statesmen's birthdays, a varia- 
tion from the usual more or less patriotic pro- 
gram may be found in the following contest, 
which will be found suitable for either one: 
Tack a large sheet of white drawing paper on 
the wall in a good strong light. Hand a piece 
of charcoal to each guest in turn, beginning 
with the tallest and going down the line to the 
very shortest. 

Tall Number One begins a portrait of 
George Washington — ^with three strokes, no 
9 



10 ' SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

more, at the very topmost lock of powdered 
hair, then hands the charcoal to number two 
and sits down; the new player begins where 
his predecessor left ofif and makes his three 
strokes count for as much effect as possible, 
and so on till everyone has had a turn and the 
picture is finished, the children, if any are in- 
cluded in the crowd, completing the shoe 
buckles; for, of course, if Washington be the 
subject under discussion, he must be in the cos- 
tume of his period, while the numerous pub- 
lished portraits of Lincoln in his high silk hat 
and flowing black tie are familiar to all. The 
result may look like the original — perhaps. 

This is supposed to be the model from 
which each guest is to copy in freehand a quick 
sketch with crayon on sheets of drawing-pa- 
per which are now handed round. They are 
timed and at the stroke of the call bell must 
march up to the wall and pin their signed ef- 
forts to the large paper — or a muslin sheet 
may be fastened beside it for this purpose. A 
vote is taken as to whose is the best and a prize 
of a framed photo of the father of his country 
awarded the winner. 




SUGGESTIONS FOR "DEAR OLD ST. VALENTINE'S DAY, 
BELOVED OF LOVERS THE WORLD OVER" 



A VALENTINE PARTY ii 

Cutting the Cherry Tree is another amusing 
new game for the twenty-second of the month : 
A small tree or shrub from which all the lower 
branches have been cut is set in a deep box of 
sand and two strong cleats nailed to it on each 
side and to the top edge of the box. 

Each contestant is blindfolded, given a 
small toy hatchet, and told to cut down the 
cherry tree. If he succeeds in knocking it 
down, as he can if he strikes exactly parallel 
with the cleats, he receives a pasteboard 
hatchet filled with candied cherries as a re- 
ward. But his antics in hitting out at empty 
air will furnish a good laugh to the onlookers, 
whether he finally strikes anything else than 
his own shins or not. 

Another blindfold game is "Handling the 
Hatchet." This consists in fitting a wooden 
handle into a hatchet-head in a given time 
while blindfolded. It sounds much easier 
than it is in reality. Ringing the changes on 
the old donkey game, try to draw a handle to 
a hatchet-head cut out of pasteboard and fas- 
tened to a sheet on the wall, with a bandage 
over your eyes. If you succeed, you will more 



12 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

than deserve the prize you will receive — a 
large hatchet of solid chocolate. 

For either of the famous birthdays a little 
session with historical facts will refresh 
grown-up memories — and show how much 
closer in touch with their school books the 
youngsters are, if any are allowed to partici- 
pate. Either ask each guest in turn to rise 
and recite some fact relating to the great man 
in question, or a verse about him; or give 
out pencils and paper and have everybody 
write down numbered facts, then collect these 
papers, after having them read aloud, and give 
the one whose memory has served him best a 
prize of a United States history, or a biogra- 
phy of the particular subject of his sketch. 

Here is a new riddle for your next Val- 
entine party: 

Curtail, and you have the act of receiving 
sound waves; 

Behead what is left, and you have the or- 
gan which receives sound waves ; 

Restore head and tail and behead twice, 
and you have the skill with which I am 



A VALENTINE PARTY 13 

captured (the two heads taken together 
will give you what is in every girl's mind on 
St. Valentine's Day) ; 

Behead again and you have a boy's nick- 
name ; 

Behead finally and you have left what 
most women like at five in the afternoon. 

The whole is the temple of love. Answer, 
Heart. 

A pretty way to match partners for Valen- 
tine parties will be found in matching up 




CHOOSING^ PARTNERS 



literally broken hearts — these being of the 
candy kind with love mottoes inscribed 
thereon, care being taken to break them each 



14 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

into two pieces only, which can be done by 
giving each heart a smart stroke with a dull- 
bladed kitchen knife. Another way is that of 
cutting paper hearts in two at different angles, 
zigzag, criss-cross and every other way so that 
no two will be cut exactly alike, putting the 
halves into separate baskets and allowing the 
men to draw from one and the ladies from the 
other. If some dainty couplets of valentine 
verse be written on these paper hearts, so 
much the better. 

Cupid's Dart is a novel and original game 
for the occasion : Peel a very large rutabaga 
turnip and trim it down heart-shaped. Color 
it with red ink or vegetable dye. Tie a strong 
cord firmly round the middle so it will imbed 
in the flesh of the vegetable, leaving several 
yards of cord to pass round two small wooden 
pulleys, such as you can buy at the ten-cent 
store — or two spools might answer. 

Rig the pulleys either on a long pine table 
or up and down in a doorway. Give the play- 
ers in turn a long meat skewer of wire or 
wood, the object being to spear the heart while 
it flashes past on the pulley, score being kept 



A VALENTINE PARTY 15 

and the winner of the highest being awarded 
a silver heart bangle, if a girl, or a stick pin of 
a silver heart, if a boy. 

Of course, no valentine party is complete 
without a free-for-all race at writing home- 
made valentines, but a fillip to the fun is added 
if you have all these efforts signed by the writ- 
ers, sealed in plain envelopes and spread out 
on a table, the boys' valentines in one heap 
and the girls' in another; now blindfold each 
girl and turn her toward the table to choose 
her fate. The valentine she thus unwittingly 
selects must be read aloud with the name of 
the writer. After which the boys take their 
turn with similar results. Sometimes these 
haphazard selections hit the mark embarrass- 
ingly close for the chooser's comfort amid 
shouts of laughter from the spectators. 

Another new way to make these original 
valentines doubly interesting is "Hidden 
Sweethearts." You may have these signed 
or anonymous as you prefer, but each must 
contain somewhere the name of some boy pres- 
ent, if a girl is writing, and vice versa. The 
name may be most effectually concealed from 



1 6 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

all but the one who reads them, as in this ef- 
fusion, 

"Oh, nowhere can be found a dupli(Kate) 
Of that sweet girl I've chosen for my mate." 

Or it may be boldly displayed, as in this, 

"When leap year comes again, I surely Will 
Propose to him who now my heart doth fill." 

Distribute paper and pencils again after 
these are collected. While the valentines are 
being read aloud slowly and distinctly, every- 
one writes down his or her guess as to the hid- 
den name, numbering them as they guess; 
these slips are collected and compared with 
the correct list, which has been taken from 
each valentine as it was read by the hostess. 
The one having the highest number of correct 
guesses is given a heart-shaped sachet-bag of 
red satin. 



MARCH 

FUN FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY 

It is not easy to invent new fun-makers for 
old anniversaries, for the traditions must be 
observed to some extent — you cannot separate 
the game of hearts in some form from Saint 
Valentine's Day nor firecrackers from the 
Fourth of July. So the best one can do is to 
embroider the ancient fabrics with original 
fancies. 

The background for this particular gala oc- 
casion has to do with St. Patrick's Day, which 
is coming more each year to be celebrated with 
some special features in the way of entertain- 
ment, even by those who do not hail from the 
Emerald Isle. 

Hibernian Hijinks 

The invitations for this hilarious affair were 
of green cardboard cut in the shape of a sham- 
rock and lettered in gilt as follows: 
17 



1 8 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

"Will you come to our Hibernian Hijinks 
on the Seventeenth of Ireland, St. Patrick's 
Day in the evening? 

"Be sure to bring your brogue wrapped 
round an Irish song or story. 

"Trip to the Blarney Stone. 

"A Dish o' Greens." 

The guests were met at the door by a pretty 
maid in a green crepe-paper cap and dainty 
apron made of a white crepe-paper napkin 
with rounded corners edged with a cut-out pa- 
per border of shamrock garlands. (Direc- 
tions for making at the end of chapter.) 

Similar aprons were given to each lady, 
while little green silk flags decorated with gilt 
harps fastened to long pins were stuck to each 
masculine coat lapel. The rooms were draped 
with the same effective crepe paper in a flag- 
and-harp pattern and the cut-out shamrock 
garlands were charmingly utilized in candle 
and lamp shades. 

The refreshments consisted of mint-aspic in 
shamrock molds — a regular Waldorf salad 
could be substituted for the aspic — olives, eel- 



FUN FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY 19 

ery, asparagus relish, pistachio ice-cream in 
the shape of a pig, served with knobby choco- 
late shillalahs made thicker at one end, little 
cakes coated with green icing, others imitat- 
ing "praties" coated with chocolate dust, with 
bits of almonds for eyes, bonbons shaped like 
corks, coffee in green demi-tasse and creme de 
menthe. Real clay pipes tied with green rib- 
bon bows for the men, and candy ones, simi- 
larly decorated, for the women, completed the 
list of toothsome edibles. 

Table decorations for such a party could 
be made very attractive with a centerpiece of 
a wire harp rented from the florist and twined 
with smilax, the strings being of tiny white 
immortelles; or several table mirrors, round 
and oblong, joined with ferns and vines to 
represent the Lakes of Killarney, and ferns 
used under the plates instead of doilies. 

Dainty holders for place-cards are small 
green parrots of celluloid, so weighted as to 
balance, poised lightly on the brim of a tum- 
bler and bearing cards in their bills. They 
can be had from the stores where favors are 
supplied for ten cents each. Other favors to 



20 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

be purchased for a few cents each are candy 
boxes in all shapes, potatoes, pigs or pipes, the 
favorites being the Paddy hats and Biddy bon- 
nets of green crepe paper mounted on card- 
board. 

Round glass powder-pufif holders with 
hinged lids, in which a shamrock is imbedded, 
cost a quarter each. Little silk harps of all 
sizes, heart-shaped celluloid bonbon holders, 
miniature clay pipes and flags of various sizes 
and qualities come for ten cents apiece. 

Directions for home-made favors: 

Shamrock aprons. Use an extra large da- 
mask paper napkin for skirt of apron. Lower 
corners may be square or slightly rounded. 
Cut out shamrock border from decorated 
crepe paper. Use this strip of cut-out crepe 
paper for border trimming of apron by past- 
ing it around the edge ; cut edge out. 

The belt is a strip of white tissue paper dou- 
bled, with the top of the apron pasted in 
gathers between the edges. Wide single strips 
of white tissue paper should be used for the 
strings and pasted to the ends of the belt. 

Paddy hat. Cut a circle of cardboard four 



FUN FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY 21 

inches in diameter and a strip nine by four 
inches. Cut slits in the lower edge of strip, 
turn them in and paste to the bottom, pasting 
also the ends together to form a ring. Cover 
the hat with green crepe paper. Make the 
wreath of shamrocks of the green-covered 
wire used for basket-making. 

Candle shades. Take small paper Irish 
flags, crimp into shape, as folding fans are 
made, and run through the top of pleats with 
a darning needle threaded with fine gilt cord. 
Or cut to fit the frame a shade of plain green 
crepe paper, edged with the smaller sham- 
rocks of the cut-out border used in the apron. 



22 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 



n 



The T^ahhH Sisters 
(Easter and Welsh) 
^cordially invLieiJou h a}lare-m-Scatv-m I 
party in honor of i^eir cousin, 
cMad cMarcA. cHare 
who leaves iomorroiv for parts unknoimj 
cM). 564 Oak Street* ' 

Sei-a-dxaf ^a7x:h30,l9l2 
Time ale dcloc(c\ 



THE RABBIT SISTERS AT HOME 



EASTER 
THE RABBIT SISTERS AT HOME 

The Rabbit Sisters 

(Easter and Welsh) 

cordially invite you to a Hare-m-Scare-m farewell 

party in honor of their cousin 

Mad March Hare 

who leaves to-morrow for parts unknown 

No. 564 Oak Street 

Set-a-day, March 30, igi2 

Time, ate o'clock. 



EASTER 23 

These original invitations, suggestive of fun 
and frolic, may be written in gold ink on white 
cardboard cut bunny-shaped, and sent in yel- 
low envelopes. The gold-and-white color 
scheme of Easter may be closely followed 
throughout. 

The guests are smilingly received by the 
two Rabbit Sisters, both dressed in white; but 
"Easter's" snowy cap is of tissue or crepe pa- 
per, with bows tied coquettishly in long, up- 
standing rabbit ears, and her white apron is 
stenciled with running hares; while "Welsh" 
wears a turban of yellow cheesecloth, its stiffly 
wired ears giving her an inquiring look, and 
across the bib of her apron, also stenciled 
with bunnies, is lettered in brown some comic 
toast, as, 

"Here's to the Goddess of Fun! 
May her frolics never be done." 

After a moment in which fully to assimilate 
the cheese-and-toast symbolism of "Welsh 
Rabbit," the guests are presented with much 
mock solemnity to the cousin, "Mad March 
Hare," who may be represented in either of 



24 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

two ways : A young man, friend or brother^ 
of waggish tendencies, attired in white clown 
suit or '•Yama-Yamas," with yellow knots in- 
stead of black on clothes and cap — which last 
should be two-pointed — and wearing a huge 
wig of red or yellow hair wildly flowing in all 
directions, may indulge in all sorts of antics 
to impersonate the role assigned to him. 

He may act as "mad" as he likes, pretend- 
ing to be in a fearful temper as each guest is 
introduced; before scaring them entirely 
away, however, he will find time to present 
each one with a white toy rabbit tied with 
baby ribbon and bid them gruffly to "March! 
Find your mate!" 

A merry scramble ensues to find partners, 
those whose ribbons match in color pairing off 
for the evening's games and refreshments, the 
rabbits being retained as souvenirs. These 
may be of papier-mache and filled with col- 
ored candy eggs, or of cardboard and pinned 
to bodice or coat lapel. 

Or, if you like, the favors may be copies of 
the Rabbit Sisters' turban caps of crepe-paper 
napkins in colors to match^ two and two. 



EASTER 



25 



Much hilarity will result from clumsy mascu- 
line endeavors to tie the rabbit-ear bows with 
becoming effect, the girl partners being finally 
called upon for help. 

If no man is forthcoming to take the part, 
the Mad March Hare can be represented by a 
bushy red or yellow wig hung on a milliner's 
hat tree or a hall tree behind a mysteriously 
curtained alcove and an electric fan turned 
upon it, producing a highly March-windy ef- 
fect. 

A rabbit hunt will be amusing to begin 
with, bags of yellow and white cheesecloth 
providing receptacles for the quarry — animal 
crackers in rabbit shape which have been pre- 
viously secreted in odd places through the 
rooms, a prize of a "Panorama egg'^ being 
awarded the one securing the most game in a 
given time. An automobile horn or tin trum- 
pet can be wound to give the view-halloo 
which starts the chase and recalls the hunters. 

Sweet crackers also furnish the motif for 
the next game, a Rabbit Run. Each man 
offers his arm to his partner. In their free 
hands each runner holds out a knife, on the 



26 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

blade of which is placed a rabbit cracker. So 
burdened, the couple must hurry round the 
room. If the cracker falls off, a forfeit must 
be paid. 

A modification of the old donkey game may 
be introduced by substituting a huge rabbit 
drawn in crayon or cut out of cloth and pasted 
on a sheet. The players, blindfolded, try in 
turn to pin a stubby bit of tail on the rabbit, 
the successful ones drawing lots for the prize 
— an Uncle Remus book full of the adven- 
tures of Brer Rabbit. 

The Mad March Hare now passes round 
slips of paper and pencils for the following 
new guessing game: 

HIDDEN HARES 

I. — Received from our ancestors? Hare- 
edity. 

2. — A facial deformity? Hare-lip. 

3. — A bird, differing from a bald man? 
Hare-on. 
(N. B. Bald men have hair off.) 



HIDDEN HARES 27 

4. — A Biblical king, cruel to children? 
Hare-od. 

5. — An early Greek historian? Hare- 
oditus. 

6. — A knight whose exploits were sung by 
the poet Byron? Childe Hare-old. 

7. — A prominent New York morning pa- 
per? N. Y. Hare-aid. 

8. — A delicate fern, much used for deco- 
rative purposes? Maiden-hare. 

9. — A noisy, pompous oration? Hare- 
angue. 

10. — Residence of the wives of a Turk? 
Hare-m. 

II. — An agricultural implement set with 
teeth? Hare-row. 

12. — The greatest desert in the world? Sa- 
hare-a. 

The first prize for ladies might be a hair 
ornament, for gentlemen a pair of military 
brushes, while sugar-candy rabbits would con- 
sole the boobies. 



28 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Prominent among the refreshments should 
be creamed rabbit en casserole, served from 
one chafing dish by Miss Easter Rabbit, and 
Welsh rarebit evolved from another chafing 
dish by her sister, the cousin acting as butler. 
Ice cream may be served in rabbit molds. 

Decorations of white and yellow may be 
utilized in Easter lilies, daffodils and maiden- 
hair fern, downy yellow chicks and white 
candy eggs, yellow wheat and tiny rabbits, 
white and gold ribbons and fancy crepe paper, 
yellow nests and baskets of candy, straw or pa- 
per, heaped with Easter eggs, and so on. The 
combinations are endless. 



APRIL 

HINTS ON APRIL FOOLING 

Send out the following invitations, written 
— from the bottom upward if you like — on 
Christmas postal cards embossed with holly: 

At Home 

for a Foolish Fiesta 

Thirst-day, April Fools t, igi^f 

Hours: 8 — 2 — / 

See Proverbs 26:5 

R. S. V. P. D. Q. 

Since April First this year is on Wednesday 
and not Thursday, the keynote of the whole 
"foolish fiesta" is set at the start. The Scrip- 
tural allusion as to answering a fool according 
to his folly will elicit some very funny replies, 
which may be kept and read aloud for the edi- 
fication of the company later on in the evening. 

Wear a fool's costume of red and yellow 
with cap and bells and an election night tickler 
for a wand, or one evolved from Mother 
29 



30 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Goose, as Simple Simon and the Pieman. 
Suspend jack-o'-lanterns made of paper pump- 




HINTS ON APRIL FOOLING 31 

kins over the doorway, in imitation of Hal- 
lowe'en frolics. 

Have the decorations as grotesque as pos- 
sible: Cauliflowers on sticks, growing in jar- 
dinieres, flower-pots filled with earth into 
which stick whisk brooms and feather-dusters, 
plant tubs with mops and brooms, and for a 
table centerpiece arrange a huge bowl of po- 
tatoes or onions mounted on wooden skewers, 
massed in a great bouquet surrounded by cab- 
bage leaves. 

Make candle and lamp shades of wrapping 
paper decorated with little fool's caps and 
bells or mad March hares. Hang all sorts of 
incongruous mottoes around : "Merry Christ- 
mas!" "Welcome to Our City!" "Hurrah for 
the Fourth of July!" "Who Struck Billy Pat- 
terson?" "Votes for Women!" "Who's Loony 
Now?" "Good-night!" "Sorry to See You!" 

Greet the guests with a funereally solemn 
"Happy New Year! Too bad you came!" 
and extend the "glad hand" that comes off in 
their grasp — a white kid glove stuffed with 
sawdust and hidden under the end of your 
sleeve. Then usher them with a dexterous 



32 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

turn of the tickler toward the wrap-rooms, 
which for this occasion should be the cellar 
for the men and the attic for the women. 

As they return ready for the fun, pin on 
each man's lapel a chrysanthemum made of 
shredded cabbage tied firmly with twine, and 
to each fair guest present a turnip rose, made 
by slicing the vegetable two-thirds of the way 
down, thrusting a wooden skewer through the 
uncut end for a stem, using a crisp lettuce leaf 
for calyx and foliage. 

Pretend to pair off men and women by giv- 
ing each a dunce-cap made of tissue paper in 
many tints, and tell them to match colors. Ar- 
range it so that when this is done it will be 
found that men will have men for partners 
and women paired off together. This will 
cause much merriment, as one of each couple 
will immediately try to ape the ways of the 
opposite sex, the taller lady growing a deep 
bass voice and gallant airs, while the smaller 
men will assume mincing manners and a most 
ladylike deportment. 

Introduce the company gravely one by one 
to your "grandfather" a man's suit stuffed with 



HINTS ON APRIL FOOLING 33 

pillows and excelsior or cotton wadding, and 
comfortably ensconced in the easiest arm- 
chair. 

The king's jester, being a privileged person, 
may be up to all sorts of pranks during the 
evening. He will sneak up behind the guests 
and pin papers on their backs inscribed vari- 
ously, "Who am I?" "If you love me, kiss 
me!" "Search me." "Hold me up!"— this 
last resulting in tussles which leave the victim 
penniless — "Tickle me, please." "Cuddle up 
close." "Please call me dearie!" "Whose 
tootsy-wootsy is 00?" and so on. 

All sorts of foolish snares will suggest them- 
selves — a counterfeit greenback such as are 
often used for advertising purposes, carelessly 
pasted to a chair seat, a silver coin glued to 
the floor, a green paper snake^wTiggling out 
from under a sofa cushion, wire spiders and 
devils dangling from chandeliers, a mechani- 
cal mouse wound up to dart out in front of a 
bevy of girls, causing a shrieking stampede to 
chairs and tables, a vase of real flowers sprin- 
kled with snuff or pepper producing an epi- 
demic of sneezing — and many others. 



34 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Start a peanut search, giving each guest a 
bottomless cardboard basket in which to col- 
lect the spoils — which prove to be shells only, 
the kernels having been carefully removed. 

Bowling backward is another nonsense 
game that will prove highly diverting. Small 
toy ten-pins may be purchased for a few cents, 
or blunt-end clothes-pins used instead. Stand 
them a few inches apart in a row at the end of 
a room. For balls use five colored eggs hard- 
boiled. 

The player kneels in his turn on one knee, 
four feet away with his back to the ten-pins, 
toward which he shoots the eggs, one after 
another, knocking down as many pins as he 
can. Keep score and award the highest a 
bunch of giant fire-crackers or a toy turkey or 
small Christmas stocking filled with candy, or 
any others equally inappropriate. 

A Christmas tree, hung with "fake" presents 
wrapped in gunny sacks, hardware paper 
and colored calico, will occasion much hilar- 
ity. 

The "Foolish Fiesta" proper — or improper 
— could be served on tall packing-cases. 



PAGEANT OF BIRTHDAY JEWELS 35 

draped with flags or sheets, the guests being 
served standing, with bandana handkerchiefs 
for napkins, kitchen-ware cutlery and dishes 
of wood or agate, on which may be piled hel- 
ter-skelter such dainty viands as cold corned 
beef and cabbage, cotton-filled biscuits, mud 
pies, and so on. Use pie tins for plates, salt 
in the sugar bowl, cold vinegar for tea, and 
mustard in the doughnuts. 

Afterward the company may be ushered 
into another dining-room — the fool's menu 
having been served in the living-room or 
kitchen — and fed with real food of a more 
nourishing, if less spicy sort. 

A PAGEANT OF BIRTHDAY JEWELS 

Useful as a program-filler at any season, a 
Pageant of Birthday Jewels can be easily ar- 
ranged, either in twelve elaborate tableaux, 
each representing a calendar month and its es- 
pecial gem, with expensive costumes of appro- 
priate colors and real jewels to illustrate the 
verses, which are then recited by one person ; 
or a simpler display for a house party or 
church social can be made almost as effective. 



36 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

with dresses improvised of the ever-useful 
crepe or tissue paper in the correct jewel- 
tones, while gems of paste or tinted glass adorn 
the players, who each recite a verse in turn. 

A beautiful and artistic effect can be ob- 
tained merely by the use of colored slides in 
a magic lantern, all the players' frocks being 
of white muslin or silk to reflect the rainbow 
hues. 

A large gilt frame, a background of black 
velvet and a curtain swung on rings, to slide 
easily, would be required for Tableaux. 
While these accessories add to the attractive- 
ness of the Pageant, they are not absolutely 
necessary. 

The jewel-months appear one at a time, 
January's garnet in the lead, recite a verse and 
step back to a waiting position in the rear. 
Or, the curtain drops, to rise on the next pic- 
tured gem. 

JANUARY— GARNET: 

To the first of the year I belong. 

Deep blood-red is my heart, full of fire, 

I am Garnet, so steadfast and strong — 
To be constant is all my desire. 



PAGEANT OF BIRTHDAY JEWELS 37 

FEBRUARY— AMETHYST : 
February's calm jewel am I, 
Sincerity's emblem alway, 
With the tint of the violet shy, 
Aglint in my Amethyst ray. 

MARCH— BLOODSTONE : 

On the bosom of March I am found, 
Whosoever the Bloodstone doth wear 

Firm and true will be all the year round, 
Whether fortune be foul or most fair. 

APRIL— DIAMOND: 

Month of April, young child of the Spring, 
I adorn — sign of innocence fair; 

Emblem chosen for fiance's ring, 
Must be Diamond — set solitaire. 

MAY— EMERALD: 

With the merriest month of the year. 

Winsome May, with her grass and her 
flowers. 

Comes green Emerald, gem without peer. 
And her wearer with happiness dowers. 

JUNE— PEARL: 

Pray, what jewel accompanies June, 
When the world spends its time out-of- 
doorSi 



38 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

But the pure Pearl of Health? All too soon 
Will it melt in the wine Old Age pours. 

JULY— RUBY: 

With the summer's hot breath of July 
Comes the Ruby, whose heart is aglow 

With the red fire of Love leaping high — 
May its flame never die, nor fall low! 

AUGUST— MOONSTONE : 

As full August trails eager July, 
So the Moonstone the Ruby's desire 

With felicity will satisfy 

Adding fuel to Love's crimson fire. 

SEPTEMBER— SAPPHIRE: 

After Innocence, Happiness, Health, 
And Love's satisfaction, come I, 

Bringing Wisdom — September's best 
wealth — 
Splendid Sapphire, as blue as the sky. 

OCTOBER— OPAL: 

When October mourns, veiled in blue haze, 

Summer's death seems to sadden the 

earth; 

Then 'tis Opal, whose bright, rainbow rays 

Promise hope of the spring and new 

birth. 



PAGEANT OF BIRTHDAY JEWELS 39 

NOVEMBER— TOPAZ : 

Chill November so dull and so gray, 
Is the season for Topaz to shine; 

For fidelity clears doubt away, 
And that is a mission of mine. 

DECEMBER— TURQUOISE : 

I am like frosty skies — or blue ice 

On the fringe of December's white dress; 

I am Turquoise, and bring without price 
What I wish for you all — great Success. 

After December has concluded her toast, 
the twelve join hands, step forward and recite 
in unison : 

We are jewels on Time's rosary, 
Lovely symbols of riches untold, 

For wealth of the heart, which is free, 
Yet has value far greater than gold. 



MAY 

HELPFUL HINTS FOR MAY PARTIES 

Of course the Maypole is the central idea in 
most parties held during the month of blos- 
soms. 

For lawn parties the family flagpole may 
be utilized in a fashion truly pastoral and 
English, the top being surmounted with a 
floral hoop from which the ribbon or cambric 
streamers of gay colors depend. The guests 
may then dance the usual Maypole figures, 
weaving in and out in their intricate mazes 
till the pretty basket-work effect is complete, 
a string quartette furnishing the music. 

Crowns or garlands of the early spring 
flowers, violets, buttercups or daisies may be 
worn by the young girls who participate in 
this dance; nosegays to match being pinned to 
the coat lapels of their partners. Refresh- 
ments can be served al fresco under the trees 
should the weather permit. 
40 



HINTS FOR MAY PARTIES 41 

In the colder north, however, before Dame 
Flora has really begun her exquisite embroid- 
eries on the spring garments of Mother Na- 
ture, the hostess may be obliged to resort to 
indoor Maypoles and for her flowers depend 
either upon the florist, her friends with win- 
dows full of house plants or her own ingenu- 
ity with tissue paper. Of this latter commod- 
ity very effective substitutes for branches of 
peach, cherry or apple blooms may be devised 
with deft fingers and a little patience. Take 
real branches of willow, maple or other trees 
and fasten small puckered pieces of pink or 
white tissue or crepe paper, all down the bare 
stems as the real fruit blossoms grow. Tiny 
artificial dandelions and daisies may be made 
by the clever, as well as multi-colored butter- 
flies, for decorations. 

Another method of forcing the lazy spring 
to yield of her largess in advance comes from 
Japan. It is not altogether new here, but is 
quite unique as a charming experiment in 
Burbankism, if nothing more. One who has 
tried it will not soon forget its fairy magic. 

Procure either from your own bare orchard, 



42 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

if you are the fortunate possessor of one, or if 
not, from that of some obliging country friend, 
all the twigs and branches of peach, pear, 
cherry, plum and apple that can be bought 
or begged. These dry sticks look very un- 
promising but put them in warm water, chang- 
ing it two or three times daily — "bide a wee 
and see what you'll see." By the fourth or 
fifth day each brown fagot will burst into 
bloom, a thick covering of its own beautiful 
blossoms — your house will look like a trans- 
planted orchard in a riot of May-time splen- 
dor. 

The indoor Maypole will be of humble ori- 
gin — a broom or mop handle — but when ar- 
rayed in fine garments of green and white 
ribbons firmly planted in a block of wood on 
a table, banked with moss and flowers, and a 
pennant gaily waving from its apex above a 
wreathing crown of white daisies, no one will 
recall its former lowly estate. 

The wreath of daisies may be kept in place 
by an embroidery hoop, about a foot in diam- 
eter, attached to the pole by strong wires like 
the spokes of a wheel to the hub. From these 



HINTS FOR MAY PARTIES 43 

spokes may be hung ropes of flowers or smilax 
or ribbon streamers ending at each plate cover 
where the place-cards are tied to candy-filled 
May baskets. Or if you can get it, the pink 
trailing arbutus may be nested within the May 
basket, a fragrant reminder of the season. 

Following are some appropriate quotations 
for May-party name-cards : 

"Oh, it's May-time! It's May-time 1 
And all the world is bright, 
For love is in the sunshine 
And the golden stars of night 1" 

"Ho! the merrie first of Maie 
Brings the daunce and blossoms gaie 
To make of lyfe a hohday!" 

"The flowers shall blossom at your feet, 
And all is blithe and free; 
For you are Queen of May, my sweet, 
And all the world to me!" 

"If you're waking, call me early. 
Call me early. Mother dear. 
For I'm to be Queen o' the May." 



44 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

MAYPOLE DANCE 

Inquiries are often made for exact direc- 
tions for a Maypole dance. The figures are 
not so intricate as they look; but as the custom 
is an English one and decreasing as time goes 
on, so in many parts of our own country our 
young people associate the first of May only 
with moving vans and house-cleaning — and 
very likely have never even seen this pretty 
flower festival. For their benefit the follow- 
ing directions are added: 

Secure a very lightweight wheel — about a 
foot and a half across — one from a child's ex- 
press wagon will do. Wind bright colored 
bunting or ribbon around the wheel-rim and 
spokes and fasten to it various flower-clusters 
and festoons, allowing some to hang down like 
vines. Insert the top of the Maypole into the 
hub and plant pennants of red, white and blue 
flower-stalks above. Or if these are not avail- 
able, flags or paper flowers may be used in- 
stead. 

Underneath the hub fasten ten to twenty 
bright colored narrow ribbons or cambric 



MAYPOLE DANCE 45 

streamers — cheesecloth serves nicely; braid 
these in and out around the pole with flower- 
garlands intertwined, for a foot or more down- 
ward, then fasten the streamers securely in 
place, covering the fastening with a thick 
wreath of flowers. 

Each child must carry a basket or bouquet 
of flowers. 

The end of each streamer is given to a girl 
and boy alternately. The girls hold the rib- 
bon in the left hand and the boys hold theirs 
in the right. 

They spread out into a circle, stretching the 
streamers to full length, the children standing 
sideways from the Maypole, the girls and 
boys facing each other. 

As the music starts up, the children dance 
around in a circle. The boys pass on the out- 
side first, allowing their ribbons to pass over 
the heads of the girls, then the girls pass at 
the outer edge of the circle, letting their rib- 
bons pass over the heads of the boys, and so 
on until the ribbons are all braided around 
the Maypole. If desired they may be un- 



46 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

wound in the same manner, merely reversing 
the positions of the dancers. 

Here is a new guessing contest for an indoor 
May party. It is called 



MAY AT HIDE-AND-SEEK 

1. A young girl. Maiden. 

2. First blossom of spring. May flower. 

3. Native of an Eastern peninsula. Ma- 
lay. 

4. A fierce Indian warrior. Maori. 

5. Three girls' names. May, Mary, 
Mabel. 

6. In the same class at school. Class- 
mate. 

7. A synonym for feminine. Female. 

8. A battleship sunk in a recent war. 
Maine. 

9. Used to sew with. Machine. 

10. An elderly married woman. Matron. 
After these labors are ended comes reward 
in the following spring-like menu: 



MAY-DAY LUNCHEON 



47 



MAY-DAY LUNCHEON 
The table is most lovely under its Blue- 
Bird place-cards and flower decorations. 




48 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

The first course is of strawberries served, 
English-fashion, with the hulls on, in tiny 
brown flower-pots lined with their natural 
leaves, which are also piled in profusion 
around the pots on the saucer, giving a delight- 
ful suggestion of having just been freshly 
gathered from the garden. Powdered sugar 
and wafers are served with these. 

This is followed by puree of peas, brook 
trout, sweetbreads en casserole, fresh aspara- 
gus, broiled chicken with lettuce and jelly, 
tomato salad, radishes and frozen fruits, 
crushed in ice cream and molded in the shape 
of spring flowers. 

The party ends by crowning the bride with 
daisies as Queen of the May, under a bower 
of spring flowers, all joining hands and circ- 
ling about her, singing a merry song of God- 
speed and farewell. 



JUNE 

SHOWERS FOR JUNE BRIDES-ELECT 

COOK-BOOKLET SHOWER 

In these days of Domestic Science training 
a Cook-Booklet Shower for a prospectivef 
bride comes as a literally refreshing rain to 
perplexed entertainment-seekers, and will 
prove of practical value to the principal guest 
of honor as well as a source of amusement to 
her friends. Incidentally just as the perusal 
of Thanksgiving stories prepares the palate 
for turkey, so this rain of recipes will serve as 
an excellent appetizer for the spring luncheon 
which follows. 

The hostess provides each girl present with 
scissors, baby ribbon, blank note paper, pencil 
and a leaf from a seed catalogue illustrated in 
colors. The bride-to-be is ex-ofEcio Inspector 
of Labor. They are directed to cut from the 
leaflet whatever vegetable or fruit illustrated 
thereon best suits the taste — tomato, apple, 
cucumber, potato or other edible. Using this 
49 



50 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

as a pattern to be laid upon the blank note 
paper and outlined with the pencil, they are 
to cut as many leaves for a little cook-booklet 
as they can fill with recipes for cooking or 
preparing for the table the fruit or vegetable 
they have selected. 

The limited space allowed on these small 
pages must of necessity produce terseness, yet 
all directions must be clear and to the point. 
Not even considering the test of the memory, 
it will be found that it is no small accomplish- 
ment to write a successful recipe. The girl 
who remembers and writes down the largest 
number of recipes receiving the approval of 
the Inspector on being read aloud at the end 
of a given time, is presented with a prize, a 
pretty dish. A cook-book to be laid away 
perhaps for future need would also be a suit- 
able prize. 

The little cook-booklets are then tied up 
each with a baby-ribbon to match its gaily-col- 
ored cover, inscribed with the name of the 
donor, and collected by the bride. If desired, 
this could be made more elaborate by letting 
each guest into the secret beforehand — send- 



COOK-BOOKLET SHOWER 51 

ing her catalogue leaflet with her invitation, 
with a hint to come provided not only with 
recipes for preparing some especial fruit or 
vegetable, but a suitable dish for it as well, to 
be presented to the bride. There are so many 
daintily decorated bits of china and glassware 
to be picked up in the shops at a nominal price 
that this addition to the Cook-Book Shower 
need not tax any purse unduly. 

Not long since I saw a sale of broken sets 
of Limoges in which the vegetable and sauce 
dishes were priced as low as three cents each, 
and they were quite flawless — not even a nick 
to mar the glaze. Pressed glass berry sets can 
be bought at the ten-cent stores, while the art 
crockery shops sell handsome salad dishes 
decorated in pale-green lettuce leaves for 
twenty-five and fifty cents each. However, 
these may be easily omitted without curtailing 
any of the fun. 

In addition, the bride is presented with a 
chafing-dish, and a vote is taken as to which of 
the recipes should be first used by her then 
and there to test the recipe-writer's ability, 
as well as her own culinary art, and to initiate 



52 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

the chafing-dish. They all adjourn to the din- 
ing-room for this trial of her skill. Should 
the tomato omelette or creamed celery she 
evolves with the aid of one of the baby-cook- 
books prove a success, her friends all declare 
that the fame of it shall reach the ears of her 
prospective husband, so that "his heart may 
safely rejoice in her" as a wifely treasure; but 
should failure ensue — as too often, alas ! it does 
attend the faltering first attempts of the young 
novitiate — all her friends give a solemn prom- 
ise "never to breathe a word of it." 



A PAPER SHOWER FOR A BLUEBIRD 
BRIDE 

Another shower for the soon-to-be young 
matron which has the merit of novelty, and is 
the means of bestowing various and sundry 
useful gifts, is the Paper Shower. You will 
be surprised at the almost endless range of 
pretty and practical things made of paper, 
and at a very low cost — candle shades in great 
variety, from the cut-out black-cat kind up to 
the fluffy French ones of artificial flowers, 



A BLUEBIRD BRIDE 53 

calendars galore, memorandum books, tablets 
of all kinds, telephone cards, bill-books, date- 
books, cook-books, the lovely sets of embossed 
doilies in all sizes, now used by many hostesses 
under finger-bowls and water glasses — and 
which can scarcely be told from the real lace 
ones, so delicate and fine are they — collapsible 
drinking cups, safe and sanitary, now rendered 
a necessity by the laws abolishing public 
drinking cups, complete outfits for paper bag 
cookery, bolts of lace paper for cupboard 
shelves, boxes of embossed writing paper and 
correspondence cards, and a thousand others 
made of the same useful if perishable ma- 
terial. 

For a Paper Shower the guests must all 
wear and bring something made of paper; the 
decorations must of course be all of paper, 
artificial flowers in vases and garlands of them 
everywhere; the tablecloth should be crepe 
paper of the beautifully decorated special de- 
signs in flowers and the favors should be some 
of the numerous papier mache novelties filled 
with bonbons. Paper candle shades and doil- 



54 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

ies, and even dishes where possible, appear on 
the refreshment table. 

From a centerpiece of paper roses formed 
in the shape of a heart radiate streamers of 
crepe paper ending in place-cards inscribed 
with appropriate love couplets. Wedding 
bells of red paper — the kind that fold up and 
cost ten cents each — depend in a great bunchy 
chime from the chandelier, tied with white 
ribbon. 

When the bride-elect appears she is greeted 
with a shower of confetti. Her white gown 
and Brunhilde helmet are decked with "Blue 
Birds for Happiness," made of crepe paper 
in the new bluebird shade, mounted on card- 
board. She carries a Bluebird wand. Each 
guest is given a wreath of tiny paper rosebuds 
to wear in her hair, while the bride receives a 
shower-bouquet of bride-roses in paper. The 
gifts are all wrapped in white tissue paper, 
tied with ribbon, and attached to each is a 
card with the name of the donor and an origi- 
nal rhyme. The reading aloud of these coup- 
lets before the gift is unwrapped should give 
some inkling of the contents of the package. 



FLAG-DAY EXERCISES 55 

For instance, with a calendar, this ancient jest 
in a new dress : 

"What's here? A date with a peach? 
Oh, if HE were but here within reach!" 

Or this with a telephone card: 

"If HE should stay too late in town, 
Use me to call him up — but not to call him 
down." 

Or this with a magazine subscription : 

"The Woman's Magazine I send, 
Twelve times, I hope, 'twill prove a friend." 



FLAG-DAY EXERCISES 

June Fourteenth is Flag Day in the schools 
all over the Union. Young eyes are tired of 
books and turn longingly toward the world of 
Out-of-Doors. 

"What'll we do, teacher? Where'U we go? 
Flag Day! Hooray!" comes in a rushing tor- 
rent of sound, everybody speaking at once, till 
teacher's tired face smiles though she has to 
put her fingers in her ears. 



S6 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

When the voices quiet down, teacher out- 
lines her plan for Flag Day. 

Two of the older boys, "teacher's trusties," 
had been sent on ahead, each bearing myster- 
ious bundles. These contained a quantity of 
small paper flags which they carefully se- 
creted in every possible and impossible nook 
and cranny afforded by the woodland space 
exactly prescribed by teacher the evening be- 
fore. 

The boundaries were indicated by larger 
flags nailed to eight trees, but had there been 
any Boy Scouts in the class, they might have 
blazed the boundary-trees in true woodman 
fashion. 

To the girl finding the largest number of 
flags in the hunt was awarded a silver enamel 
flag-pin, and the lucky boy was presented with 
a large silk flag to hang on his bedroom wall 
in anticipation of college days. 

A flag race came next. Teacher's trusties 
laid out ten rows of flags, while teacher herself 
selected ten children for the first relay, and 
lined them up by the flags. Then Trusty 



FLAG-DAY EXERCISES 57 

Number One sang out: "On your mark I 
Ready! Set! Go!" 

At the first signal the runners lined up with 
toes even; at the second, they picked up one 
flag; at the third, they assumed the crouching 
position for a start, and at the last, they flew 
forward like a herd of deer on the stampede. 
Then followed a terrific scramble as each has- 
tily planted his flag on the marked spot and 
rushed back for another, until all were taken 
up. 

Another set of ten had their chances at the 
exciting game, till all had had a turn. The 
one whose garden of flags was planted in the 
shortest time was given a prize, a handsomely 
illustrated little volume telling the story of 
Betsy Ross and the making of the first flag. 

This was read aloud later on in the day 
when the children were tired of play. Then, 
too, a quieter game was introduced by teacher. 
She had brought in her bag a set of paper flags 
of all nations, and these became the center of 
a merry and instructive guessing contest, by 
seeing who would recognize the most. 

These flags could be copied with colored 



58 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

pencils or water-color paints on white paper, 
the neatest being taken back to the schoolroom 
for future exhibition purposes. 

Later a modification of the old donkey game 
was introduced. Teacher had provided a 
large flag with a cloth pinned over the blue 
part, and each child, blindfolded, was turned 
around three times, then started toward the 
flag to see who could pin the most paper stars 
on the blank field of blue. 

The picnic luncheon was spread out under 
the trees on the greensward, two strips of red, 
white, and blue bunting sewed together serv- 
ing for tablecloth. Paper napkins and a rib- 
bon cake of patriotic colors were features of 
the feast. 

The homeward return was made delightful 
by a lusty singing of a flag song taken from 
the school song-book, "Hail to the Flag!" 

A PARCEL POST PARTY 

A catchy and instructive game, taken from 
the new parcel post law, is just out. You 
have to watch your p's and q's, or you will 
surely be "It" within one minute after the 



A PARCEEPOST PARTY 59 

game starts. It is modeled a little upon the 
old Mail Service scramble game, but the new 
variation contains the catch. If you have read 
carefully the printed circulars of rules and 
regulations issued by the Post Office depart- 
ment, you will be quite safe — and may pos- 
sibly win a prize for your up-to-dateness. 

The players are seated in a circle, as in Mail 
Service, while the Postmaster stands in the 
middle and calls off the names of the cities to 
which he wishes to send parcels or letters. 
Everyone has received the name of a city 
which he must keep in mind and be ready for 
instant action when he hears it called — that is, 
if — and that's the catch. 

The Postmaster calls out, "I want to send a 
bushel of potatoes by parcel post from Boston 
to New York." The boy or girl named Bos- 
ton or New York would instantly try to ex- 
change places — but if they do, one of them will 
surely lose a place and take the stand of Post- 
master in the middle — all because you cannot 
send a bushel of potatoes by parcel post, as 
it exceeds the twenty-pound limit of weight! 
But you can send a half peck, so watch out! 



6o SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

In the same way, should the wily Postmas- 
ter try to induce Chicago and Pittsburgh to 
change places by the announcement that he 
wishes to send from one of those cities to the 
other three sofa pillows — even though they 
might weigh under the limit, they would bulk 
over the allowed measurement of seventy-two 
inches, length and girth combined. 

Again, he may try to fool you into deserting 
your post by the casual remark that he wishes 
to send registered by parcel post a dozen eggs 
from St. Louis to Denver. You could send 
the eggs all right, if they were properly 
packed — but you couldn't register them, since 
parcel post fourth-class matter is insured, and 
therefore may not be registered. 

Also, don't let him lure you from a safe 
vantage-point by the firm declaration that he 
will mail a book for a birthday gift to his 
brother in Richmond from his home in Wash- 
ington by the parcel post — for it can't be done 
— since Uncle Sam has not yet included lit- 
erary products of any sort in his fourth-class 
low-cost postal service, much as some of us 
would like him to do so ! 



JULY 

PARTIES FOR GROWN-UPS AND 
CHILDREN 

A FOURTH OF JULY BREAKFAST 

A clever hostess in our town had a breakfast 
and eight little guests all ready to surprise her 
small son when he came downstairs rubbing 
his eyes one Fourth of July morning. 

He rubbed them harder and stared unbe- 
lievingly at the pretty sight that met them in 
the dining-room, which was draped in bunt- 
ing. The table was spread with crepe paper 
in red, white and blue; while huge candy 
crackers, with pyramids of torpedoes beside 
them for ammunition, were trained outward 
from a centerpiece which was a marvel of 
beauty and ingenuity — a flag of cut flowers. 

Scarlet runner bean-blossoms formed the 
red stripes, snowy sweet peas the white; while 
6i 



62 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

corn-flowers made the blue field, with white 
daisies for stars, stuck in a box of wet sand. 

The breakfast menu consisted of red rasp- 
berries and cream, hominy, toasted crackers 
and bluefish. 

Each child was given a flag, then they all 
stood up and sang the last verse of "America," 
after which they marched with flags flying 
and drums beating to set ofif their torpedoes. 

RAINBOWS THAT END IN POTS OF 

GOLD 

A RAINBOW PARTY 

"A rainbow of flowers 
Will be all ours, 

If it shines or showers; 
With a pot of gold, 
That will surely hold 
Great wealth untold. 
Will you join in the fun? 
'Twill be promptly begun 
After set of the sun* 
Please don't be late; 
Remember the date — 
Monday eve at eight." 

These invitations for an original lawn fete, 
children's flower festival, or with slight modi- 



A RAINBOW PARTY 63 

fications, a church social, are to be written in 
rainbow water colors and inclosed in tissue- 
paper wrappers. Or, white cardboard cut in 
a semi-circle two inches wide and four inches 
long, may be painted in rainbow bars — red, 
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet — 
sketched with a pot of gold at one end and let- 
tered in gilt. In the latter case, write each 
triptych of the invitation in a single arching 
line following the curve of the bow. 

If it should rain, the "properties" can be 
transplanted indoors or on the veranda, sus- 
pending the rainbows from the ceiling by in- 
visible wires, instead of employing the pole 
supports. The first and largest of these is to 
be erected over the gateway or entrance. Two 
stout poles, to be twined with green or gray 
cheesecloth to simulate tree boles, are set in 
the earth on each side of the walk, and across 
the top two lengths of wooden barrel hoops, 
with cloth tacked on them, for the framework, 
are securely nailed. 

Your garden should yield enough flowers of 
the proper tints, which if well sprinkled with 
the hose will keep fresh for the evening. But 



64 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

if not, very pretty substitutes of crepe paper 
may be made or purchased. Or, simplest of 
all, bands of bunting or crepe paper can be 
utilized, when your invitations should begin, 
"Rainbows and flowers." 

If you use cut flowers begin with a row of 
crimson rambler roses, and in sequence a row 
each of orange nasturtiums or calliopsis or 
gaillardias, next a row of lemon yellow nas- 
turtiums or roses, a bar of green leaves, bluets 
or cornflowers or love-in-a-mist, dark blue 
pansies for indigo and lastly purple wistaria, 
clematis or hyacinth bean-blossoms for the 
violet. The season will be too far advanced 
for the real violets. 

At one or either end of the arch hang a 
large brass jar or kettle covered with gilt 
paper securely tied on with ribbon. Paste 
upon the side a fancy label, "Fortune favors 
the brave." This is kept mysteriously closed 
till the end of the evening. 

Seven similar but smaller arches, each with 
its pot of gold — medium sized here — are set 
on the lawn or suspended from tree branches 
and under these a progression of seven tables 



A RAINBOW PARTY 65 



Fortune Favors ^^ 
Brave 



draped with crepe paper in the primary col- 
ors, each table having a basket of flowers of 
its special hue. Do not use vases, for they 
might be overturned or broken in the races 
and games which follow. 

The favors are miniature flower pots or toy 
brass kettles with handles, filled with choco- 
late bonbons wrapped in gilt paper. Rainbow 



66 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

tally cards are distributed, partners being 
found by matching colors. 

Gilt stars are used to score points. 

When everyone has arrived, the hostess 
requests the boys to line up for a race for the 
first pot of gold above the red table. The win- 
ner tears off the paper cover and finds his 
prize on top. This may be of gold and as ex- 
pensive as your purse allows, or what is really 
more fun, a toy or trinket from the ten-cent 
store and wrapped in gilt paper. Still further 
to spare expense, the winners of the races 
merely score points toward one large prize for 
the evening — a gold nugget stickpin. The 
girls' prize is a set of beauty pins with tiny 
nuggets on them. 

The winner of the first race sets the pot on 
the table. It is found to be filled with yellow 
gum-drops. Every one is required to guess 
the number of "nuggets," the one coming near- 
est to the exact number scoring a point toward 
the prize. 

The race toward the orange table for the 
second pot of gold follows, after which all the 
players are asked in turn to thrust a hand into 



A RAINBOW PARTY 67 

the pot, palm side down and see who can catch 
up most nuggets on the back of his hand, and, 
so balancing them, proceed around the space 
in front of the tables without spilling one. 
The most successful here scores a point. 

After the race for the third pot, suspended 
over the lemon-colored table, everybody 
stands at a given distance and tries to toss nug- 
gets back into the pot, scoring another point 
for those who succeed. 

The fourth pot hangs over the green table, 
on which a large shrub in a tub becomes the 
center of a jolly game. Each player receives 
a gum-drop with a thread drawn through it 
— by means of a darning-needle — and is asked 
to tie it on the shrub while blindfolded. All 
who do it receive gilt stars on their tally cards. 

The fifth race is followed by a cannon 
broadside. A toy cannon is loaded with the 
gum-drop nuggets and fired at each guest who 
in turn advances to catch it. He retains the 
missile if he has caught it, adding one to his 
score. 

The sixth table gives a version of Peanut 
Stab, the player being given a long hatpin and 



68 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

allowed three thrusts into the pot. Each candy 
sticking to the pin counts one in his favor. 

At the end of the seventh and last race the 
games conclude with an old favorite — a bead- 
stringing competition. The boys and their 
partners receive between them a long linen 
thread with a stout needle at each end. The 
players are now allowed access to all the pots 
of gold on the seven tables. The couple 
stringing the longest rosary in the three min- 
utes' time allowed receives each a star. 

A progressive buffet supper is now served 
from the tables in the following order: 

Red: Cold ham, radishes, tomatoes, red 
lemonade. 

Orange: Orange marmalade, American 
cheese, coffee with cream. 

Yellow: Gold cake, peaches, pears, tea. 

Green: Cucumber salad, lettuce sand- 
wiches, olives, pickles. 

Blue: Huckleberry pie. 

Indigo : Blueberry cake, grape juice. 

Violet: Candied violets, candy straws. 

The guests are provided with plates and 
forks and pass down the line to be served. 



A RAINBOW PARTY 69 

The last surprise of the evening comes with 
the uncovering of the large pot of gold from 
the rainbow over the entrance. This contains 
colored fireworks which are set off by the 
boys. 



AUGUST 

A MELON FROLIC 

"Will you come with me and find 
How water and melon combined 
With an occasional bit of the rind, 
Candied, pickled, preserved, 
Or hollowed out and curved 
Around a jack-o'-lantern light, 
Will make some fun next Saturday night? 
Wear bathing togs or you won't get a bite I" 

From these invitations on green cardboard 
decorated vv^ith luscious-looking slices of red 
vv^atermelon, from v^hich a huge bite w^as sug- 
gestively missing, one obtained a pretty fair 
idea of the frolicsome nature of the goings-on 
one sultry evening on the moonlit sands late 
in August. 

The summer cottage of the hostess fronted 
directly on the beach, so the guests were 
greeted on the wide veranda, which was hung 
70 



A MELON FROLIC 71 

with jolly jack-o'-lanterns made of hollowed 
melons, both cantaloupe and watermelons. 

Having been here divested of their wraps, 
the merry-makers, all clad in bathing-suits, 
ran on down to the scene of operations, where 
a huge bonfire of well-seasoned driftwood was 
already snapping and sparkling invitingly. 

A circle of tall poles had been set deep in 
the sand, and from wooden cross-pieces, well 
up out of harm's way, depended other melon 
lanterns cut in all sorts of grotesque expres- 
sions, from the wide, grinning teeth and eye- 
glasses of a well-known caricature to the 
round-mouthed O's affected by popular comic 
artists. 

Watermelons and cantaloupe are not so 
easy to dig out as pumpkins, but these had 
been done very easily by cutting in halves, then 
fastening together with gummed paper seals 
and tying with ribbons. 

Other lanterns of paper were strung in close 
festoons along the water's edge, vying in re- 
flected radiance with the silvery moonpath on 
the beckoning waves. Gay blankets spread 
around the campfire furnished seats for the 



72 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

guests, who were provided with partners by 
matching small slices of watermelon which 
looked as though they had been cut with a jig- 
saw. 

Each person, on receiving his slice, was cau- 
tioned on pain of paying a forfeit not to eat his 
melon till the signal was given. Before giv- 
ing this signal the hostess explained to the 
circle about the campfire that the seeds were 
to be saved and the one who ate his slice quick- 
est should have first chance at the next game. 

This was a modification of bean-bag, each 
player rising in turn and shooting his seeds 
from between thumb and forefinger at a 
target — a melon of green tissue paper inflated 
like a toy balloon and swung by a long ribbon 
from one of the light pole cross-pieces to 
within six feet of the ground. 

The one causing the target to sway the larg- 
est number of times by a given number of 
shots received a prize of a "Coon Song" all 
about "Water-millions," the booby being pre- 
sented with a derisive clipping from a sport- 
ing magazine entitled, "Big Game I Have 
Bagged." A variation of this is shooting 



^ 





MELON SHOOTING ON THE BEACH 

"This form of melon archery is great fun" 



A MELON FROLIC 73 

metal-tipped paper arrows at a real melon 
suspended by a ribbon from the cross-piece. 
This form of melon archery is great fun* 

A real melon-eating contest followed. The 
girls were lined up behind a long plank, the 
ends of which were supported on trestles. 
Kitchen chairs would serve the same purpose. 
Before each contestant reposed a slice of 
watermelon. Facing them across the fire 
was a similar line of boys and melon slices, 
the partners being opposite each other. 

The two big brothers of the hostess now 
passed quickly behind the lines, tying each 
pair of hands securely with a bandanna hand- 
kerchief. Then each brother stationed him- 
self at the end of his line with a stop-watch in 
his hand. 

The hostess cried, "One! Two! Three! 
Go!!" 

Every head ducked down to the juicy slices 
and amid much giggling, sputtering and chok- 
ing the contest proceeded rapidly till the sig- 
nal to stop. Then they all stood erect, their 
hands were released — the bandannas being re- 



74 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

tained as useful souvenirs — their slices in- 
spected and prizes awarded. 

The girl whose slice showed the least red 
received a large papier mache watermelon 
filled with candied fruit, and the lucky boy 
was the proud recipient of a melon-red neck- 
tie. 

They were all lined up once more behind 
the devastated rinds and given small paring- 
knives with which to carve something — ani- 
mal, bird or human, anything they liked — out 
of the rind in a given time. Amid much mer- 
riment some really clever "sculpting" was 
done. 

The hostess now walked down the lines and 
left two numbers at each place, one for the 
sculptor and one for his "statue" — also a pen- 
cil and two ballots marked respectively, 
"Ladies' Prize" and "Gentlemen's Prize." 

When the time was up the lines marched 
slowly along to inspect the results of their 
labor and vote for the two they thought best. 
A remarkably lifelike bust of President Taft 
stood at the head of the masculine efforts in 
the plastic art, while the girl whose product 



A MELON FROLIC 75, 

received the largest number of votes had 
carved a wonderful pale green rose with the 
outside dark green of the rind utilized as foli- 
age. 

After this, more light refreshments were 
served — diced watermelon — the ex-contents of 
the lanterns — soaked in sherry, watermelon 
preserves, sweet spiced pickles of watermelon 
rind and sweet crackers. If you think this is 
too much watermelon you could substitute 
strawberry ices or ice cream in cantaloupe 
halves. 

Stories were then told around the fire, each 
raconteur throwing a fagot on the flames and 
telling his tale while it burned. A final 
plunge in the moonlit surf and a quick scam- 
per to the veranda for wraps, prior to dispers- 
ing for their various seaside homes ended 
what all declared to be "one evening in a mil- 
lion — water-million I" 



SEPTEMBER 
A GOLDEN-ROD PARTY 

Decorated with feathery sprays of golden- 
rod, the unique invitations, done in gilt letters 
on white cards, piqued the curiosity and 
caused a full attendance at the home of a col- 
lege girl whose little affairs always savored of 
novelty. She was the captain of her basket- 
ball team and her friends were all given to 
athletics and "gym." work. 

This was the last lawn party of the summer 
vacation time ; on the morrow they would all 
scatter to their various schools for the "winter 
grind." So the "Golden-Rod Play" was espe- 
cially appreciated. And it was a play in the 
fullest sense — even the play on the pretty word 
itself being cleverly carried out. 

The favors were little gilded canes tied with 
orange ribbon; the orange and lemon ices 
were molded like a shepherd's crook; yellow 
76 



A GOLDEN-ROD PARTY 



77 



candy canes were handed round, and larger 
ones of papier mache, filled with candied 




So ca.n J- ,y 

Ca.n you hccir c 9o7d.en rodi' 

Come tn/rtd trif. 
Cayr. 10U. f.sh ^ith ^^olc^en-to^r 

2?c ot- die. „ 

Ca.lL \jou. ecd fi- joltlen-rot^r 

Pfease re/^fif 



WOR AT A GOLDEN-ROD PARTY^(_^^^^ 



THE PRIZE 



78 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

fruits, lemon drops and sugar plums were 
among the prizes awarded. 

Yellow was the predominating color in the 
menu which comprised among other good 
things devilled eggs, cheese sandwiches, gold 
cake, lady fingers and ripe peaches, pears and 
glowing yellow bananas. 

The whole house, to which they adjourned 
for refreshments after the outdoor games were 
over, was a mass of golden bloom with which 
the dancing yellow flames of a cheerful grate 
fire vied in colorful suggestion. Great jars 
and vases overflowed with golden-rod, the 
crepe paper candle shades were ornamented 
with it, while the hostess herself in yellow 
muslin was crowned with a cunningly ar- 
ranged tiara of the short, pointed flower tips. 

Out on the lawn, huge vases and tubs, filled 
with golden plumes, glowed in the light of 
yellow jack-o'-lanterns. "Jumping a Golden- 
Rod" proved great sport for young, well- 
trained muscles. 

A strip of wide ribbon of gold gauze was 
unfolded along the greensward- The ribbon 
measured exactly five and one-half yards or 



A GOLDEN-ROD PARTY 79 

one rod in length. Whoever could make the 
rod in the fewest jumps, running and stand- 
ing jumps both being allowed, won a prize — 
a fishing-rod of yellow bamboo. The booby 
received a cane filled with lemon drops. 

Another version of jumping a golden-rod 
consisted of seven jars of golden-rod, ranged 
on the ground in a graduated row, each taller 
than the last and each numbered on the side. 
Whoever jumped over the first received one 
point toward the prize, the second, which was 
higher, scored two points, and so on. 

Very few attained victory over the tallest 
jar, as it measured several feet in height. The 
countryside had been scoured for these tall 
golden-rods which grew to giant size in that 
locality. If it is not easy to obtain large 
enough, the final jar could be set up on a small 
hassock. 

The highest jumper among the boys was the 
proud recipient of a handsome cane of yellow 
maplewood, while the athletic girl won a 
prize of a gold pin — two tiny, crook-handled 
canes crossed like swords. Incidentally, if one 
must cut down the expense of any party in 



8o SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

which contests play an important part, one can 
always give score-cards and play for one gen- 
eral prize instead of small ones for each game. 

Still a third version of jumping a golden- 
rod was furnished by a pole-vaulting contest, 
in which a gilt curtain-rod served for the pole. 
This was followed by a fishing bout with a 
bamboo rod and reel in a tub full of small 
articles wrapped in yellow paper and tied with 
gilt cord. These were all from the ten-cent 
store and were of the April fool order — negro 
dolls, comic valentines, rubber rattles and the 
like. 

The second query of the rhymed invitation 
— "Can you bear a golden-rod?" — was most 
amusingly answered in the negative by all of 
the merry company, for laughter prevented 
every one from succeeding in the trick, which 
was to carry round a prescribed area on the 
lawn a candy cane with its crook handle 
curved over one's outstretched tongue, prop- 
erly rigid and pointed for the experiment. 

No matter how determined the player might 
be to keep that cane from falling off his 
tongue, the ludicrous humor of the thing 



A SEED PARTY 8i 

would tickle him so that before he knew it or 
half completed the circuit, down it would slip 
amidst the laughing shouts of the onlookers. 
However, to make up for this mortifying 
failure, everybody present succeeded admir- 
ably in complying with the last request of the 
invitation — each ate a golden- rod of orange 
ice and nobody died of it. The evening ended 
with dancing — and how many care-free "gold- 
en-rods" were tripped by the light feet of 
youth no one knew save the living-room floor 
■ — and it never told. 

A SEED PARTY 

As golden September wanes into flaming 
October, the flower gardens droop their flaunt- 
ing banners of rainbow hues, signifying love 
and springtime, and put on the sober browns 
of maturity and harvest. 

This is a good time for the fortunate owner 
of a garden to give a seed party. Ask your 
friends to come over some sunny afternoon 
and bring their garden hats, seeds and cata- 
logues. 

Provide each one with a long envelope of 



82 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

stout manila paper and lead them into the 
garden. Apportion them to certain beds of 
flowers — vegetables, too, if you have them — 
and tell them to gather the ripened seeds 
therefrom. 

If you like you can give each a wooden bowl 
or a china soup plate in which to winnow the 
seeds from their husks after the manner in 
which our primitive forefathers cradled the 
grain from the harvest fields. The bowl 
serves better than a plate or pan, as the littlest 
seeds like poppy and cockscomb will not blow 
out so readily when "rocked." 

After alternately crushing, cradling and 
blowing to get rid of chaff, hulls and dried 
sepals, the seeds can be safely garnered in their 
respective envelopes to be sealed and labeled. 
This is done after the garden party has ad- 
journed to the house, pencils, scissors and 
paste-pots being provided for the purpose. 

The colored plates or half-tone cuts from 
the catalogues may be levied upon for labels 
to cut out and paste upon the envelopes, to- 
gether with planting directions which may be 
either clipped or copied from the catalogues. 



A SEED PARTY 83 

If you do not care to collect toll from your 
neighbors' seed books, you can easily supply 
all necessities from old back numbers of your 
own or those readily obtainable from the seed 
merchants. 

Have each one sign her name to her enve- 
lope; this will be a pleasant reminder next 
planting season. Before sealing the envelopes, 
which should be left till the very last, have 
them all displayed open for inspection and 
take a vote as to whose handwork is neatest 
and best, giving a prize of a book on garden- 
ing. 

Now distribute more envelopes for the pur- 
pose of exchanging surplus seeds all round. 
One will find herself supplied in her own store 
which she has brought from home, with more 
zinnia or nasturtium seed than she can pos- 
sibly use, but no pansy seed at all, she having 
thoughtlessly planted these sand and shade- 
loving flowers in hot, open ground, so they re- 
fused to propagate at all. 

Similar race suicide prevails among your 
nasturtiums — though you had an early display 
of the orange beauties under your dining-room 



84 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

windows. Another, fortunate as to pansies 
and nasturtiums, has had no luck at all with 
Shirley poppies — something must have eaten 
the plants, for not a blossom showed its silky 
head. A trade is promptly effected. 

Soon everybody is busy "swapping" — sweet 
peas, morning-glory, scarlet runner, hyacinth 
bean, candytuft and bachelor buttons all 
change owners quickly, and next spring every 
one will be well supplied. 

Nothing is so provoking to the flower lover 
as finding herself short at the crucial moment 
on some particular seed in her carefully 
planned planting diagram, for which she has 
to sead to town or away to her special seeds- 
man, while the warm spring rains are being 
wasted on empty soil. And it takes a skilled 
gardener to calculate exactly how much will 
be needed in a given area. 

And it adds insult to injury to be told by 
her farthest neighbor afterward, "Why, didn't 
you have enough mignonette seed for the bor- 
der to your canna bed? That's too bad ! I fed 
my canary a whole saucerful — it's too risky to 
keep them over till next spring, you know. 



A SEED PARTY 85 

You're never sure they'll grow. I was just 
disgusted, though, when I found myself two 
rows short on sweet alyssum to edge those sal- 
via beds — what? You gave your.wash-woman 
a teacupful? Oh, dear!" 

When everybody is supplied with the cov- 
eted seeds, have them seal the envelopes and 
then serve "seedy refreshments." These are 
salad sprinkled with chopped walnuts and 
celery seed, salted almonds, mixed nuts, sand- 
wiches (be sure to remind your guests that 
bread flour is ground from wheat seed), cof- 
fee, also made from a seed berry — seed cakes, 
caraway cookies and strawberry ice cream, 
which also contains the seed suggestion. 

If you like, you can close with a guessing 
contest as to the number of seeds in a big- 
headed sunflower brought from the garden, 
presenting the prize winner with a seed-pearl 
stickpin. 



OCTOBER 

AN AUTUMN LEAF TEA 

'A pretty and instructive suggestion for the 
hostess in search of novel entertainment for 
her friends is that of an Autumn Leaf Tea. 

It is surprising how many of us, well-versed 
in nature-lore though we may think ourselves, 
find our brains puzzled in attempts to identify 
the leaves of our most familiar vines and trees 
— ^especially when they are detached from the 
parent stem by which we unconsciously recog- 
nize them. 

Anyone, for instance, seeing the white, 
rounded, dryad-limbs of the birch tree im- 
mediately knows what it is — but when only the 
leaf itself confronts us, we are completely at a 
loss, for a moment at least, to place our femi- 
nine friend of the woods. The cut-leaf birch 
is particularly difficult to differentiate from 
the mountain ash. 

86 



AN AUTUMN LEAF TEA 



87 



A new way to carry out the how-to-know- 
the-leaves idea is here described, and it fur- 
nishes your guests with especially personal 
souvenirs of the occasion in self-made herbar- 
iums — or rather leafariums. 

If you are so fortunate as to live in or near 
a forest, your invitations may be written on 
white birch bark, but if not, green or brown 
cardboard, cut the shape of a maple or oak 
leaf, will do. They read as follows : 




88 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

The October fields and hillsides are levied 
upon for their riot of colorful decorations — 
sumac's crimson and oak tree's green and gold, 
the yellow flame of the maple and the copper 
wonder of the beech will transform your house 
as if turned outside in — indeed, the whole out- 
doors can be brought within four walls merely 
for the taking. Even in the dusty cities the 
florists provide great sheaves of autumnal 
leaves at a nominal price. 

The tea-table stands under a bower of 
bronze and red, the fireplaces are woodland 
banks, while every jardiniere and vase and tub 
overflows with leafy splendor. If you care to 
take the trouble, beautiful candle shades can 
be made of half-turned autumn leaves — their 
illumined glow is wonderful. Receiving 
guests at the door is a young girl in autumn- 
leaf paper costume, with leaves in her hair 
and a leaf-lined basket of fruit 

The hostess herself can carry out the same 
lovely color scheme in gown and hair orna- 
mentation; indeed, it would be hard not to 
find in one's wardrobe some of the many gor- 
geous leaf-hues, from the soft brown wood- 



AN AUTUMN LEAF TEA 89 

tones to vivid scarlet. A crown of natural 
woodbine or Virginia creeper tendrils would 
be a most becoming garniture for even graying 
tresses. 

Have the tables arranged as for cards. Pro- 
vide each with a pair of scissors, a pot of muci- 
lage or a sheet of gummed paper and a slab of 
paraffin or white wax. Also four pencils to 
go with four blotting-books made of ordinary 
white blotters tied loosely with gay-colored 
ribbons, and a sheaf of assorted leaves. Wil- 
low, laurel, maple, ash, oak, birch, beech, 
sumac, grape-vine, rose, apple, cherry and 
pear furnish a goodly variety of the commoner 
ones. 

Have ready on the kitchen range a moder- 
ately warm flatiron for each table. Care must 
be exercised not to allow these to grow too hot, 
or the "leafariums" will be spoiled. If you 
have children or child friends, they will be 
delighted to be included in the grown-ups* 
party as a reward for carrying the irons when 
needed. 

After your guests are all seated at the tables 
instruct them how to proceed: Cut slits in 



90 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

each blotter for the insertion of a leaf-stem, 
the tips to be pasted down or fastened with 
narrow strips of gummed paper, the preserv- 
ing wax rubbed on the face of the iron, which 
is then rubbed lightly over the leaf. The 
name of the leaf is to be written beneath it, 
before going on to the next one at the stroke 
of the time-bell. 

The hostess makes the rounds between 
leaves and pastes a holly-leaf seal on each blot- 
ter whose leaf is correctly mounted and named. 
Extra loose blotters may be placed on each 
table for the "smart" women who achieve 
extra results in the time allowed. 

If you care to prolong the afternoon's di- 
version, each guest may be required to draw a 
leaf upon the cover page of her book and color 
it with water-color paints provided for the 
purpose. An appropriate prize for this would 
be an enameled leaf-pin. 

When each leafarium is completed and 
signed with the worker's name at the stroke 
of the call-bell, they are all collected and 
passed upon by the judge or judges for prize 
awards. The one containing the highest num- 



AN AUTUMN LEAF TEA 91 

ber of holly-leaf seals is awarded a garden 
book or other prize suitable to the occasion. 

An additional prize for neatness and gen- 
eral appearance may be given if you like. 
Upon the booby is bestowed a satirical wreath 
of laurel or bay leaves, either real or artificial, 
after which the leafariums are redistributed 
to their owners to take home as souvenirs. 

The hostess or one of her guests now recites, 
with his well-known wooden gestures, Bill 
Nye's famous poem beginning: 

"The autumn leaves are falling, 
They are falling everywhere; 
Falling in the atmosphere, 
And likewise in the air." 

Everybody then adjourns to partake of 
"Autumn Leaf Tea," the chief feature of 
which consists in everything being served in 
a nest of leaves, from the leaf-lettuce sand- 
wiches and parsley-sprinkled salad to the real 
Ceylon, which is dispensed in leaf-green cups 
set in saucers garnished with rose-geranium 
leaves. 



92 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

A BLACK CAT PARTY 

Hallowe'en affords but slight opportunity 
for great variation from the time-honored tra- 
ditional party program — Bobbing for Apples, 
Candle-and-Mirror fortune telling, and all 
the other ways of answering the important 
question, "Who is my fate?" 

Those who prefer to deviate from the 
beaten track, will find a newer diversion for 
this prankish holiday in A Black Cat Party. 
Instead of the customary pumpkin lanterns 
for decorations and invitations you are to con- 
fine your effects solely to black cats of every 
size. It is a very simple matter to cut them 
from a traced pattern laid on black cardboard 
or blotting paper. This cat pattern may be 
found in any kindergarten book of outline 
drawings. Or you can obtain the cats all 
ready to cut out of Hallowe'en crepe paper 
which comes in bright orange hues, decorated 
profusely with black cats and witches in 
pointed caps. 

Tiny black kittens romp over the margins 
of the card invitations which read as follows : 



A BLACK CAT PARTY 93 

"Meow! Meow! 
Please listen now! 

I bring good luck 
Wherever seen, 

Especially 
On Hallowe'en. 
There'll be a stack 
Of cats as black — 

Come find your own 
Among the pack; 
You'll learn your fate and know the worst 
The night of October thirty-first. 

Miss Brown. 
Hotel Imperial, New York." 

Instead of the expected hostess to greet them 
at the door, the Hallowe'eners are met by a 
monstrous black feline who gives a tentative 
pawshake with a loud "Meow!" After a 
while this creature on all fours is discovered 
to be a mischievous boy friend whose indul- 
gent sister or mother has rigged up a costume 
for him out of black cotton crepon padded out 
with cotton batting at the proper places, with 
a comical long tail stiffly wired, and a Japan- 
ese cat-mask. This feature of the evening's 



94 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

entertainment may be dispensed with, al- 
though the costume is not difficult nor expen- 
sive to make, and a boy of waggish tendencies 
can carry off the part of magnified puss and 
make a lot of fun for himself and others 
through the evening. 

In larger towns or cities where theatrical 
costumers abound, a Puss-in-Boots costume 
may be rented for this part, with plumed hat, 
cat-mask, velvet coat, roll-top boots and all. 
But the home-made pussy will be perhaps 
even jollier. 

The hostess pins a black cardboard cat upon 
every guest's coat lapel or corsage and any 
kind of Hallowe'en costume is permissible, 
just so a black cat figures somewhere upon it. 
Even if the witch of Endor should come in 
riding on her broom, she must be accompanied 
by her dark boon companion. 

At one jolly Hallowe'en party a young 
woman wore a Chinese costume of yellow, ap- 
pliqued with paper cats and with her came 
wee two-year-old Robert, who trotted shyly 
around in a clown's white, puffy pantaloons 
and conical cap all plastered over with dusky 



=£33s2r^--^.-. .^'^ 



A BLACK CAT PARTY 95 

kitty-cats. Everybody applauded vocifer- 
ously when he sang — 

"My kitty has gone from her basket, 
My kitty has gone up a tree, 
Oh, who will go up in the branches, 
And bring back my kitty to me?" 

When the company is seated, the hostess 
brings in the family tabby and explains that 
the first one that puss touches after being set 
down on the floor will be the first one of the 
crowd to get married. 

Thereupon, everybody breaks into cries of 
"Kitty! Kitty!" or "Scat!" according to their 
views on the all-important question. The 
lucky or unlucky person favored by the cat is 
then presented with a toy kitten stuffed with 
sawdust as an emblem of marital good luck. 

If Tabby is too frightened by the uproar to 
make up with anyone, but dashes out of the 
room, this is a sure portent that nobody pres- 
ent will be wed within a year. 

The toy cat is the oracle for the next test of 
fate. It is perched on the extreme edge of a 
long polished library table which has been 



96 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

cleared for the purpose. Whoever, by gently 
tipping the table, can slide the cat right side 
up into the waste basket waiting to receive it 
at the other end of the table will have good 
luck till next Hallowe'en. The unlucky wight 
who overturns the cat on its toboggan toward 
the waste basket will have misfortune for a 
year. 

A toy black cat on casters or rollers is next 
introduced. At the end of a cleared space on 
the bare floor are ranged a set of child's blocks 
with the letters of the alphabet on their sides. 
Each player is given two chances to bowl the 
cat toward the blocks. Whatever letters are 
touched or displaced by the impact will be the 
initials of one's fate. If you are not skillful 
enough to speed the catapult into any block 
at all, you will remain for a year in single 
blessedness. 

Another similar form of fortune-telling is 
being pursued by a jolly group of young folks 
nearby. A stuffed cloth cat has been plastered 
all over with white gummed letters of the al- 
phabet and suspended by a ribbon in the door- 
way. Someone sets the cat swaying or whirl- 



A BLACK CAT PARTY 97 

ing, after which the players each in turn spear 
it with long, heavy headed hatpins. 

The letters impaled are the fateful initials 
and, of course, prospective bachelors and 
bachelor maids are numerous, for not every- 
one is skilled in this precarious form of marks- 
manship. 

Papers and pencils are now given out for a 
new guessing game called: 

Dissecting the Cat 

When properly dissected by the most skill- 
ful surgeon present, any pussy is found to con- 
tain the following astonishing assortment of 
things : 

I — A kind of tree — Fur. (Fir.) 

2 — A silent delay — Paws. (Pause.) 

3 — A group of words making complete 

sense. Claws. (Clause.) 
4 — A story. Tail. (Tale.) 
5 — Parts of a line of poetry. Feet. 
6 — What mice do when they hear the cat. 

Hide. 
7 — Frequently heard in the talk of an ego- 
tist. (Eyes.) I's. 



98 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

On closer examination "Black Cats" only 
are found to contain : 



I — Something to play ball with. Bat. 

2 — Something lazy horses do. Balk. 

3 — Something most women love to do. 

Talk. 
4 — A part of the anatomy. Back. 
5 — Used in fastening carpets. Tack. 
6 — Found in a hay-field. Stack. 
7 — Common form of seasoning. Salt. 
8 — Used to hold flour. Sack. 
9 — Used on old-fashioned beds. Slat. 
10 — Largest part of growing corn. Stalk. 

Another guessing contest for this occasion 
is — 

HIDDEN IN ALL HALLOWE'EN 

r. A pair of shoemaker's implements? 
Two awls. (Alls.) 

2. What we all like to take? Ease. 
(E's.) 

3. What none of us likes to do? Owe. 

4. A boy's name? Hal. 

5. A large room? Hall. 



A BLACK CAT PARTY 99 

6. To let? Allow. 

7. Not high? Low. 

8. What you say when you step on a tack? 
Ow! 

9. What you say when you are surprised? 
Ha! 

10. What you say over the telephone? 
Hello! 

11. An old name for eyes? Een. 

12. What an old-fashioned house has? 
Several ells. 

13. What will a cramp do to you? Dou- 
ble you. 

14. A paradox — something that never 
was? High-fen. (Hyphen.) 

"Cat conversation" will enliven the crowd 
after the intent silence which falls over every 
guessing contest. Quick wits are brought into 
play in this amusing phase of A Black Cat 
Party. 

The players are seated in a circle; the 
leader starts off with an observation about "the 
new school c^/alog" ; number two replies that 
it is "most cfl/egorical," which number three 



100 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

follows quickly with, "I feel like <:^/erwaul- 
ing when I see it," while number four in- 
quires, "I didn't catch what you said," or, "I 
like cfl/sup," and so on, around the room, the 
idea being that each must say something with 
a word containing "cat" as a syllable or part of 
one. Those who are unable in one minute to 
think up the required sentence are greeted 
with a chorus of "Sc^^s!" and must get out of 
the circle, which finally narrows down to the 
winner, who receives a pocket dictionary as a 
well-earned prize for his cleverness in word- 
juggling. 

By all means, someone should read or recite 
Anthony Euwer's clever "Boy's Essay on 
Cats," as most apropos to A Black Cat Party. 

Any number of modifications of old games 
could be introduced — "A Cat-Hunt," instead 
of a Peanut Search, with animal crackers for 
quarry, pinning the tail on a cat instead of a 
donkey, when blindfolded, and various others 
will suggest themselves. 



NOVEMBER 
GAMES FOR THANKSGIVING TIME 

TIME FOR TURKEY 

This good time centers most appropriately 
about the fowl which toward the end of No- 
vember eclipses the glory of the eagle as our 
national bird. The little play upon the word 
which leaves one in doubt as to which Turkey 
is meant, the bird or the country, adds to the 
spicy flavor of the fun. 

It might be well to read up a little on the 
country of the Orient which bears the same 
name as the Thanksgiving bird, in order to be 
ready for catches in the games ; otherwise an 
unexpected turn in the play may find you nap- 
ping. 

The invitations were written on soft note- 
paper, thrust into tiny papier mache roast 
turkeys and sent by parcel post. They read as 
follows : 

lOI 



I02 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

"Time for Turkey at our house, evening of 
Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 
^th, at ate of the clock eggsactly. You may 
roost on our perch for the evening without 
being plucked, though you may lose your head 
before midnight. You are to provide your 
own dressing, remembering that fine feathers 
do not always make fine birds. It will be your 
own fault if you are roasted, but we promise 
that you will be 'a young gobbler well stuffed' 
before the evening is over, for we intend to 
cut up all we like and put Turkey on the map. 
Come and help us do it. 

"Yours for a good time, 
"Ethel and Oliver Smith." 

The favors for the girls were small roast 
turkey boxes filled with Turkish paste, while 
the boys received paper turkey gobblers 
stuffed with what looked like Turkish cigar- 
ettes, but which turned out to be harmless imi- 
tations of chocolate and sugar. 

Partners were found by numbers on the in- 
side of the candy box lids. Ethel and Oliver 
sang the old "Gobble Duet" from Pinafore; 



TIME FOR TURKEY 103 

one of the guests played a turkey trot on the 
piano, but parental decree forbade the danc- 
ing of that edifying wriggle, although in its 
modified form of the one-step it was not only 
allowed, but the elders joined in the whirl. 

After an hour of dancing, games were an- 
nounced, the first of which was called "Stuf- 
fing the Turkey." Two kinds of stuffing were 
on the bill of fare: One consisted in blind- 
folding each player, placing one of the papier 
mache turkeys in his hand with the lid off, 
and telling him to fill it from the pile of tiny 
gum drops on the table in a given length of 
time — two minutes being allowed to perform 
the feat. His awkward efforts to find the 
candy and then fill the turkey with it produced 
shouts of laughter from the onlookers, who all 
thought it must be so easy and simple — till 
they tried it themselves. 

The second kind of stuffing was shown when 
the victim was stood up against a wall blind- 
folded, and told to open his mouth, while 
some one tried to toss gumdrops into the aper- 
ture at a distance of six paces. 



I04 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

A guessing game which puzzled everyone 
was called 



THINGS FOUND IN TURKEY 

1. Capital? Constantinople. (Nearly 
every guest said "Capital T.") 

2. Musical instruments? Drum-sticks. 

3. Home for wives? Harem. One senti- 
mental miss said, "Heart." 

4. A story? Tale. 

5. What herbs? Sage and Tobacco. (The 
last grows in Turkey.) 

6. What races? White and dark. (This 
applies to both "Turkeys.") 

7. What two countries are always near by? 
Grease (also Greece) and China. 

Charades followed and were shown in two 
acts of several scenes each: 

FIRST CHARADE 
First Act 
Two boys comparing bits of quartz and 
talking excitedly about "striking it rich." 
Ore. 



TURKEY CHARADES 105 

Second, two girls halt before the company, 
one lifting the eyelid of the other and peering 
carefully into the pupil. Eye. 

Third, a pair of boys blacked up to repre- 
sent negroes, quarreling violently in planta- 
tion dialect. As they go out each declares 
angrily, "Dis am de en' ob our fr'en'ship. Dis 
am de en'." Answer, N. 

Fourth, the tallest girl in the crowd, fol- 
lowed by a group of smaller girls, who all 
lookup at her wonderingly, exclaiming, "My! 
isn't she tall?" Answer, Tall. The whole, 
Oriental. 

Second Act 

A boy in baggy trousers — a divided skirt 
tied about his ankles, smoking a long Turkish 
pipe, sitting cross-legged on the floor — Turk. 

Second, a girl hunting through her shop- 
ping-bag for something she cannot find, shakes 
her head and goes out. A boy, turning all his 
pockets wrong side out, till at last he finds 
what he is looking for — fits it to the lock of 
the door and walks out. Key. Answer, Ori- 
ental Turkey. 



io6 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

SECOND CHARADE 

Two boys enter, smoking the candy cigar- 
ettes, one asks the other for a light, applies the 
end of his cigarette to the other boy's cheroot, 
says, "Thanks," and both go out. Thanks. 

Second. A girl, dressed in rags, begs an- 
other girl for just a penny to buy bread. The 
other gives her a piece of money and both re- 
tire. Answer, Giving. 

Third. Turkey is represented by two boys 
who come in gobbling loudly, "Gobble! Gob- 
ble!" 

Answer to whole, Thanksgiving Turkey. 

The entertainment concluded with a beau- 
tiful little tableau : 

"Giving Thanks" 
A group of five children dressed respect- 
ively as king, queen, page, knight and flower- 
girl. King and queen, crowned and sceptered, 
seated in high-backed chairs, page at king's 
right, knight kneeling in gratitude before 
them, while the flower-girl, garlanded and 
crowned with rose buds, strews roses from her 
basket at the feet of the king and queen. 



A FRUIT FAIR FROLIC 107 

The refreshments consisted of cold sliced 
turkey, cranberry jelly, nut salad and ice 
cream in turkey molds. The evening ended 
in dancing. 

A FRUIT FAIR FROLIC 

The time of giving thanks for the gifts of 
nature is a good season to have a fruit fair, in 
your own home living-room or in the church, 
by way of merely social enjoyment, or of rais- 
ing money for the church in readiness for its 
winter activities. This is an entirely new de- 
parture from the traditional festival or har- 
vest-home frolic. 

If for a church social send out invitations 
cut out of suitably colored cardboard in the 
shapes of various fruits, red for apples, crim- 
son for cherries, blue for bunches of grapes, 
purple for plums, yellow for peaches and 
pears, and so on. They can be artistically 
touched up in delicate shadings with water 
colors, if you care to take the trouble. 

Similar cards, two of each kind or color, 
tied with baby ribbons, may be used for match- 
ing partners in the games, if it is a porch or 



io8 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

house party only. For a neighborhood club 
affair these may not be needed. The invita- 
tions read: 




A FRUIT FAIR FROLIC 109 

"By their fruits ye shall know 

Who can make the best show, 
In our vineyard next Saturday night; 

There'll be tasting and hasting, 

But not any wasting; 

There'll be nudging and judging, 

But never begrudging. 
For each one awaits a most toothsome bite; 

Admission is fruit. 

Raw or cooked, just to suit; 

If you use your eyes. 

You'll win a prize; 
Come and join in the fun at its height." 

The possibilities here are endless. The dec- 
orations alone present a bewildering array of 
fascinating ideas. If the fair is held in a 
lodge hall or on a big piazza, leafy branches 
from trees laden with ripe fruit — -late har- 
vest apples, frosty grapes, fully ripened plums 
and peaches — ^will contribute a richly festive 
appearance, like a bit of transplanted wood- 
land. 

Green, red and yellow Japanese lanterns, 
decked with tissue paper leaves in a fringe at 
the top, are hung around in profusion; or if 
there are electric chandeliers, they may wear 



no SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

gay paper shades of green or autumn leaf 
tints. 

Here also is utilized the pretty Japanese 
fancy of cutting notches in bare twigs and 
branches and wedging therein crisp rosettes 
of pink and white crepe paper to imitate plum 
and cherry and apple blossoms. Grape vines, 
hanging full of luscious clusters, are twined 
everywhere in arboreal effect quite like out- 
doors. 

All sorts of imitation fruits, either out of 
season or not easily procurable, such as apples, 
peaches and pears of wax, candy or papier 
mache, oranges and lemons of yellow paper 
stuffed and puffed with cotton, emery balls of 
scarlet cloth made in the shape of strawberries, 
are cunningly fastened with their real proto- 
types among their native foliage. 

Much hilarity ensues when unsuspicious 
fingers try to pick bunches of milliner's grapes 
or high-hung wax cherries from a beckoning 
green bough. From this can be evolved an 
amusing contest: "Fake Fruits." 

Stand contestants five paces from the leader, 
allowing guesses at five or ten cents apiece 



A FRUIT FAIR FROLIC iii 

which of the two apples he holds up in either 
hand is real and which artificial. He may 
change — or pretend to change — the fruit be- 
hind his back, till the right guess is made, 
when he takes up the next pair, one being a 
spurious but lifelike bunch of red currants or 
a downy peach from the bonnet shop. The 
successful guesser is awarded the real fruit, 
the leader keeping the imitations for the next 
contest — which is to guess what is contained 
inside them. 

These guesses will go wide of the mark, but 
will end in a gale of laughter, when the papier 
mache peach is opened and reveals — not candy 
as expected, but sawdust, breakfast food, rice, 
sugar, tobacco, flour, salt, a thimble, a spool of 
thread, pins, needles, pen points or any one of 
a hundred similar things. 

Here the first to guess right receives the 
peach and its contents as a prize, while the 
leader takes up another — a pear, lemon or 
plum, ready for the next relay of guessers. 
You will find a neat sum netted from this curi- 
osity-whetting game by the end of the evening. 

If desired, you may allow, at so much per 



112 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

guess, a contest as to the correct number of 
grains of rice contained in the "Fake Fruits." 

An apple-peeling race for the men, or a 
banana-slicing contest for the women, if 
the season is not too far advanced, will also 
enliven things considerably. 

Place the apples or bananas in small pans, 
and provide the workers with paring-knives 
and quart boxes. At a given signal they be- 
gin, stopping short when the stated time is up. 
A prize of a silver fruit knife or pearl-handled 
penknife may be awarded the deft-fingered 
ones who win out with the largest results of 
their labors. 

Near by a fruit-sampling contest is provok- 
ing shrieks of laughter from the crowd. Sev- 
eral different kinds of fruit have been cut into 
small pieces and are being fed to blindfolded 
people, who try to guess by the taste of the 
sample what each fruit may be. It sounds 
ridiculously easy — if you have never tried it; 
after which you are greatly surprised to find 
what a large part our eyes play in the taste of 
all edibles. 

Far removed from this "madding crowd" 



THE SECRET ORCHARD 113 

is a quiet comer where a thoughtful group is 
busily gnawing lead pencils and studying 
divers and sundry curious objects ranged on 
a long table with numbers pasted near each 
article. These puzzled ones have paid a dime 
for the privilege of finding and noting down 
on numbered lists all the wonderful fruits to 
be discovered only by profound research into 

THE SECRET ORCHARD 

1. Picture of pretty girl. — Peach. 

2. A straw half under some earth. — 
Strawberry. 

3. A piece of string with lead sinker at- 
tached. — Plum. 

4. A pair of shoes. — Pear, 

5. A coil of electric wire. — Currant. 

6. A pile of shot. — Grape. 

7. Box of shoe blacking and a coffee 
berry. — Blackberry. 

8. Piece of sandpaper and a coffee berry. 
— Raspberry. 

9. Sketch of runaway couple overtaken 
by irate father. — Cantaloupe. 



114 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

10. A marked calendar leaf. — Date. 

11. Doll sitting in chair and boy doll in 
running attitude. — Citron. 

1 2. Letter O and a toy stove. — Orange. 

Those who locate properly all these hidden 
fruits are awarded glasses of home-made jelly 
from the exhibits further down the hall where 
the real Fruit Fair is held. Ranged in appe- 
tizing rows on narrow tables are the choicest 
products of all the orchards and jam closets in 
the parish. 

There are always numbers of busy house- 
wives in every community who have no time 
nor inclination for fruit preserving. These 
will be eager purchasers of homemade pickles, 
jams and jellies — the eaters of their house- 
holds having quickly tired of the cloying glu- 
cose-and-acid products of the factories. 

Every true follower of the preserver's art 
has developed some particular specialty for 
which she is justly noted: Little Mrs. Ben- 
nett brings a glass of her famous quince jelly, 
Mrs. Home, the professor's Southern wife, 
contributes one of her precious bottles of 



THE SECRET ORCHARD 115 

cherry conserve ; Mrs. Ferry displays her de- 
servedly renowned apple pie — for fruit in any 
form is welcome; while Mrs. Thurston, the 
model housekeeper on the hill, has brought a 
jar of her delicious tutti-frutti, and Mrs. 
Grano, the newcomer from Denmark, proudly 
shows her first attempt at watermelon pre- 
serves. 

Prior to throwing open this toothsome array 
for general purchase, every one is allowed to 
pass down the line and vote for the exhibits 
-deserving the blue and red ribbons signifying 
first and second prizes. In this way will be 
avoided the usual heart-burning and scathing 
criticisms of luckless judges. This ceremony 
can be dispensed with altogether, however, if 
one considers discretion the better part of 
valor. 

The funniest man of the crowd, having con- 
sented to act as auctioneer, mounts on a chair 
and proceeds to auction off his wares to the 
highest bidders. After which everybody 
throngs into the supper-room for the refresh- 
ments which consist largely of fruits — fig new- 
tons, fruit cake and jelly cake being served 



ii6 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

with the tutti-frutti ice cream and coffee, top- 
ping off with whatever can be procured in the 
line of fresh raw fruits. 

The ladies in charge of the various booths 
may exercise considerable ingenuity in cos- 
tumes appropriate to the occasion, if they 
wish: Colored plates of fruit from seed cata- 
logues and agricultural year-books may be 
drawn upon for cutting out appetizing decora- 
tions to be pasted on summer gowns of muslin ; 
aprons of paper with fruit decorations, 
wreaths of tissue paper blossoms, garlands of 
ribbon flowers and necklaces and bracelets of 
strung cranberries all help toward a most at- 
tractive and piquant fancy dress for the saucy 
daughters of Ceres who are to preside over 
the bounties raided from the overflowing gar- 
den of lavish Mother Nature. 



DECEMBER 

A SNOW FETE 

"Come over the snow 

Next Saturday night 
Where candles glow 

And fires shine bright 
On iceberg and floe 

And snowdrift white; 
Join our merry band 

And we all will go 
To the frigid land 

Of the Esquimau. 
Wear white — Saturday night." 

These fun-promising invitations were writ- 
ten on icicles of cardboard which had been 
first smeared with mucilage and then dusted 
thickly with powdered mica — an oblong hav- 
ing been left clear in the center for the words 
of the invitation. 

This gave the keynote of the evening — 
everything suggestive of polar snow and ice 
117 



ii8 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

was carried out in decorations, costumes and 
games. 

The living-room was a frozen bower, with 
its shrubs and tree branches apparently 
a-glitter with hoarfrost. Bare boughs had 
been gathered from the woods, smeared with 
paste and thrust bodily into dishpans full of 
white confetti — then the whole powdered with 
mica or "Diamond Dust." Every bowl and 
jardiniere in the house had been planted full 
of these whitened branches, giving an effect 
indescribably beautiful. Also the cardboard 
icicles were everywhere in evidence. 

White canvas was on the floors and the 
hostess wore a costume of white crepe paper, 
pasted thickly with silver stars and magnified 
snowflakes of every pattern. Her powdered 
hair was capped with a tinsel crown. From 
spirals of white coiled wire in the front of 
her crown rose silver stars which quivered 
and twinkled with every motion. She carried 
a silver wand similarly decorated with stars 
and tied with white tinsel ribbon. 

She ushered her white clad guests, as they 
came from the wrap-room, into an igloo or 



A SNOW FETE 119 

Esquimau hut which had been erected on a 
platform at one end of the living-room. 

This hut was made of packing boxes and 
roofed with rafters of barrel hoops to give a 
rounded or beehive shape. Over all, outside 
and inside, cotton batting had been tacked and 
dusted with the snow powder. Icicles like 
stalagmites and stalactites glittered at the door 
of the igloo and all along the interior. At the 
further end on an icefloe throne, made of wood 
but topped with a thick plate of glass from 
father's office desk, sat an Esquimau fortune- 
teller, swathed from head to foot in white furs. 

To each comer who filed by him the for- 
tune-teller handed a crepe paper snowball, 
and mumbled words of dark portent; as for 
instance — to a boy known to be attracted by 
a Titian-haired lassie in the crowd, "Beware 
of an auburn-haired lady! She will steal 
something from beneath your lower left vest 
pocket before very long!" 

Or to a girl whose sweetheart was away at 
college, "You will receive a letter from a dark 
man in three — to you it will seem three 



I20 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

years, but it may be three days or three 
weeks." 

The fortune-teller should be somebody well 
acquainted with everyone, taking care that 
his jibes, while pointed and personal, may hurt 
nobody's feelings. 

The white paper snowballs contained halves 
of white candy hearts, which when matched 
up, secured to everyone present a partner for 
the evening. 

Outside of the igloo "Dr. Cook" and 
"Peary" were being impersonated by pairs 
who were blindfolded, turned round three 
times and headed for the North Pole — a 
totem-pole, freshly carved with jack-knives in 
fantastic figures. 

The first of each pair to reach the pole was 
awarded another snowball — this time a tooth- 
some popcorn ball. If neither "Peary" nor 
"Dr. Cook" succeeded in reaching the North 
Pole within a given time, they were compelled 
to pay a forfeit — walking blindfolded on 
hands and knees around the room — a la polar 
bear. 

The next game was "Biting the Snowball" 



A SNOW FETE 121 

and proved to be most mirthful. A popcorn 
ball suspended by a ribbon in a doorway was 
to be bitten at least once in five trials. It 
swung tantalizingly near the biter who was 
always sure he would bite into that popcorn 
ball — next time! 

"Digging the Drift" was almost as funny. 
A deep pan filled with white paper confetti 
sat on a white-draped table. In the confetti 
had been imbedded various small trifles 
wrapped in white tissue paper — the favors of 
the evening. These were mostly from the ten- 
cent store and were as appropriate to a snow 
fete as could be obtained — wee Christmas 
trees in tiny pots — small stockings filled with 
bonbons — crystal paper weights — glass knife 
rests and so oru 

The digging was done with a toy spade such 
as children use in sand-play at the seashore. 
If the paper confetti is not obtainable, com- 
mon table salt may be used for "snow." 

Another game was "Shooting Polar Bears." 
This consisted in tossing marbles at a white 
Teddy bear, posed precariously on a parrot's 
perch. Careful aim and some force in marks- 



122 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 




ShootinglPoldr Bears 



" 'Tossing "MaT^Ies afa v\/hit€> Teddtf 'Bpcit^ 
posed -precatiouslif on a Thrrois pGrck. 

manship were required to knock Teddy from 
his perch, but when he toppled over, the suc- 
cessful "big-game hunter" who scored highest 
in bringing Bruin low, was awarded an air- 
rifle for his skill; or if "he" happened to be a 
girl, she was presented with a Cupid's-bow- 
and-arrow calendar. 




"A little gi: 



OUR LADY OF SXOWS 
posed very effectively as 'Our Lady of Snows' by Kipling" 



A SNOW FETE 123 

Magic-lantern views of Alaska and the Es- 
quimaux followed. "Mushing up the Moun- 
tains," "Crack Dog Teams," "Prospecting on 
the Yukon," "Midwinter on Chilkoot," and 
"Christmas at the First Alaskan Mission" 
were among the pictures shown. 

Among the appropriate recitations given 
were: Longfellow's "December," Burns' 
"Winter," and "Cotter's Saturday Night," ex- 
tracts from Whittier's "Snowbound," and 
Longfellow's "Hiawatha." Everyone was 
called on for a quotation apropos to winter. 

Illustrated poems were delightful diver- 
sions. They were tableaux with the igloo for 
background and a curtain strung across its 
door on wire. A little girl, draped with a 
sheet and flowing spangled scarf, had bor- 
rowed the silver-star crown and wand from 
the hostess and posed very effectively as "Our 
Lady of Snows" — by Kipling. 

Several youngsters dressed in white in the 
act of making a snow man, with a boy hidden 
in the roof showering white confetti over the 
group, represented Lowell's "First Snowfall." 

A boy in white climbing up the side of the 



124 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

hut and carrying a banner inscribed with the 
word "Excelsior" brought the poem of that 
name most vividly to mind. 

"Frost Fairies," represented by an effective 
group of girls in spangles and snow-dusted 
draperies, who were busily painting the win- 
dow of the igloo, concluded the tableaux. 

The entertainment part of the evening 
closed with a number of rollicking winter 
songs in which everyone joined: "Jingle 
Bells," "Seeing Nellie Home," "Over the 
Ice," "Greenland's Icy Mountains," and oth- 
ers of the same kind. 

The refreshments were equally appropriate 
to a snow fete : 

Celery salad, 

Apple Snow with Whipped Cream, 

Saltines, 

Popcorn, 

Ice Cream and Sherbet, 

Frosted Cakes, 

Crystallized Ginger, 

Glace Fruits and Iced Punch or Lemonade. 

Every guest voted the Snow Fete a triumph 



FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR 125 

in paradoxes, cold in appearance, but warm in 
welcome, fun, and good cheer. 

WATCHING THE OLD YEAR OUT 
FAREWELL PARTY TO THE OLD YEAR 

"Father Time and Mother Earth, assisted 
by their twelve grandchildren and three hun- 
dred sixty-five great-grandchildren will give 
a farewell party to their son Oldyear, who 
starts on a long journey to join his four wives, 
on the evening of December 31, 191 — . 

A christening of their youngest child. New- 
year, may also be expected. 

You are cordially invited to attend. 
1 1 1 Chestnut Street. 

June — and a rhyme about yourself." 



It was that last cabalistic sentence in these 
original invitations which gave the one tele- 
phone operator of a small Jersey town a busy 
hour after the postman had gone his rounds 
the day after Christmas. 

The young artist couple who lived at iii 



126 SOpiAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Chestnut Street were famous for their in- 
ventive ideas in entertaining, and every one of 

the eighteen recipients who composed the 
younger married set was on the qui vive to 
know "what the Billy Warrens were up to 
now — also what am / supposed to do?" 

So the telephone was kept buzzing until 
Mrs. Billy had instructed everyone what was 
expected of him or her, and cautioned against 
telling anything about it to a living soul. 

For each invitation had a different role de- 
manded of its recipient, and no one was to 
know what the rest were to be — though it was 
not hard to guess. 

On New Year's Eve the guests were greeted 
at the Warren door by a tall, white-bearded, 
white-haired, old gentleman with a scythe 
over his shoulder, who, as Father Time, in- 
troduced his astonishingly portly wife, 
Mother Earth. 

She was very globular indeed, having been 
puffed out to a fair round fatness with the aid 
of sofa cushions. Upon her ample light-blue 
cotton gown her husband had stenciled out- 
line maps of the five grand divisions of the 



FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR 127 

globe — Europe, Asia, Africa, North and 
South America. 

The guests were shown to wrap-rooms 
dimly lit with a single candle. This was in 
order to preserve as much secrecy as possible. 

When all were ready to come downstairs the 
lights of the living-room were lowered till the 
only illumination came from the logs blazing 
on the wide open hearth. 

Father Time led Mother Earth to the chim- 
ney corner and declaimed sonorously: 

"Old Father Time am I, 
Born countless ages gone, 
In dim antiquity, 

Before Creation's dawn. 

Joy, sorrow, life and death, 

To all mankind I bring; 
Tho' ancient as the world, 

I'm ever on the wing. 

All men must yield to me; 

Young, old or sad or blithe, 
And high or low degree, 

Must bow beneath my scythe. 

And thou my fruitful spouse 
Hast ever been, O Earth I 

From us an endless race 
Of progeny hath birth." 



128 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Here Mother Earth stepped forward, lay- 
ing her hand on his arm : 

"I am thy spouse, O Time! 
Most bountiful and blest. 
Unnumbered children, thine. 
Have nursed my ample breast. 

I am the source of wealth. 

Great store of pelf I bear, 
And yield most lavishly — 

Gold, silver, jewels rare. 

To every living thing 
• I give its daily bread; 
For pauper and for king 
My bounties all are spread. 

Our sons, the Years, may do 
Their work and pass — but we, 

Their parents, Time and Earth, 
Must go on endlessly. 

Now thou, my son, Oldyear, 

May on thy way depart; 
This night thou goest hence — 

But not from thy mother's heart." 

Oldyear, bent and decrepit, white of beard 
and hair, leaning on a staff, took the hand of 
Mother Earth and kissed it: 



FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR 129 

"Dear Mother, ere I pass, 
My word of love I give 
To thee and Father Time, 
For thou didst bid me live. 

Both happiness and grief 
Have been my portion here; 

I leave to comfort thee 
Thy latest son, Newyear. 

My work is done, I go 

To seek my wives so dear, 

Spring, Summer, Autumn cool. 
And Winter, pale and drear." 

As he turned to go, a flower-garlanded fig- 
ure in flovs^ing white draperies moved out 
from behind a screen in the chimney corner 
and advanced, hands outstretched toward Old- 
year. 

"When thou wert gay Newyear, 
I was thy bride in truth, 
The gentle Spring, who brought 
Thee sunlight, flowers and youth. 

Then love and song made life 

One merry holiday; 
Three children came to bless 

Our love — March, April, May." 



130 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Two little girls and a boy came dancing 
down the aisle and ranged themselves between 
Oldyear and Spring. The boy spoke first: 

"A child of the winds am I, 

March — boisterous, blustering boy; 
Now lamb — now lion bold, 
I build up — and destroy." 

[April made her bow : 

"Of sun and shower born, 

A child of smiles and tears — = 
Where April's feet may pass 
The first green grass appears.** 

May, in pink, with blossoms decked and 
crowned, with flying curls, and a basket of ap- 
ple blooms on her arm, tripped out: 

"Spring's best-loved child am I, 
May — blossom of the year; 
I bring the flowers and say: 
'The Joy of Life is here.' " 

Spring led her brood away, and from be- 
hind the screen stepped another shadowy fig- 
ure, robed in green, with trailing tendrils of 
vines and cherry clusters in her dark hair. 



FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR 131 

Placing her hand in Oldyear's, she looked up 
into his face and said: 

"Thou wert a man full-grown, 
Oldyear, when thee I wed; 
A strong man's deep, strong love 
On me thou lavished. 

The blossom. Spring — a girl; 

Rich fruit — a woman, I, 
Warm Summer, with my babes 

June, August and July." 

She turned to meet three stately maidens 
pacing up the aisle. A burst of music fol- 
lowed — the Lohengrin Wedding March. For 
June was all in bridal white, with orange blos- 
soms and filmy veil. She was scattering roses 
as she came. She kissed Summer's brow and 
turned to face the crowd : 

"First born of Summer, I, 
The bridal month of June; 
Bedecked for lover's gaze, 
My path with roses strewn.'* 

July was swathed in red-white-and-blue 
bunting, wearing a Liberty cap and waving 
aloft the Stars and Stripes. She knelt for 



132 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Summer's blessing, then turned to salute the 
guests : 

"The Maid of Liberty! 

The patriot month, July! 
Red roses, harvests white. 
And blue above, the sky!" 

August, in scarlet robes, w^ith poppies on 
her hair and bosom, carrying a sheaf of wheat 
ears, curtseyed low^: 

"The harvest maid am I, 
The dreamy August fair. 
Of slumb'rous nights and noons, 
With poppies in my hair." 

Summer vanished with her daughters. Old- 
year sat heavily in a wide easy-chair, leaning 
his hands and chin on his staff. Around the 
screen in the inglenook came a figure in 
brown and gold adorned with autumn leaves 
and weighted with fruit. She leaned over 
Oldyear and caressed his snowy locks with 
light fingers : 

"Wife of thy later days, 
I did thy burdens bear; 
I garnered in thy fruits. 

And gave thy children care." 



FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR 133 

A boy with books under his arm and a spray 
of golden-rod in his buttonhole, whittling at a 
stick, loitered whistling up to meet her. He 
dodged as Autumn, with motherly hands 
tried to smooth his hair: 

"September, month of school, 
I cut vacations short; 

[Here he cut the stick through.] 
I do not like to be 

The end of play and sport." 

October, dressed much like Autumn, only 
in gayer colors, red and yellow, blue and 
brown and gold, leaned her head against her 
mother's shoulder: 

"October, Autumn's pet, 
I'm like my mother here; 
I help her work and care 
For Father, dear Oldyear." 

'A large boy, staggering under a heavy 
basket, loaded with eatables — a turkey on top 
— dropped it before the group by the fireside, 
straightened his back with a groan and de- 
claimed : 



134 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

"I'm Autumn's youngest son, 

And unto thee, Oldyear, 

Thanksgiving time I bring, 

All burdened with good cheer." 

Autumn passed with her sons and daughter. 
Winter, very pale and cold, white robes a-glit- 
ter with ice and snow, with starry crown and 
wand, appeared. 

"Old Age's bride am I; 

I shiver o'er the thought; 

Yet in three wondrous babes 

My happiness I sought." 

December, a boy in red sweater, fur cap and 
mittens, skates over his arm, drawing a sled 
on which was a tiny Christmas tree, hung with 
gleaming ornaments, pulled up in front and 
shouted : 

"Who says that Winter's drear? 
She gives us snow and ice, 
And Christmas gifts and fun; 
/ think she's mighty nice!" 

He gave Winter a bear hug and a resound- 
ing smack and tramped noisily back to his seat. 

Oldyear's head nodded drowsily, his eyes 
closed, but no one noticed him. 



FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR 135 

All were intent on January, who was exactly 
like his brother, except that on his sled was a 
little girl : 

"December's twin am I, 
And / think he is right, 
It's only old, old folks 

Who hate the Winter bright 1" 

The little girl clambered off the sled, and 
threw back her Red-Riding-Hood cloak to 
display a costume of white crepe paper thickly 
sprinkled with red hearts and gilt arrows. On 
her brown curls sat jauntily a crown of red 
hearts, points upward ; she carried a bow and 
arrow. 

"I'm February sweet, 

Dan Cupid's Valentine; 
I brought you Washington, 
And Lincoln, great and fine." 

An exclamation from Winter directed at- 
tention to Oldyear, who was seen to be peace- 
fully asleep with a smile on his face. Winter 
shook him gently but he did not rouse. 

Father Time and Mother Earth, who had 
been sitting all this time on a wide settle at 



136 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

the side of the fireplace, came together and 
stood arm in arm gazing at the quiet face of 
the sleeping Oldyear and repeating softly in 
unison : 

"Farewell, dear son, thy time is past, 
Thou hast done well thy part, 
With all thy joys — mistakes a few — 
Farewell, farewell, dear heart!" 

Some one at the piano started up the 
melody of "Auld Lang Syne" and all joined 
in lustily. As the last strains ceased — 

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
And the days of Auld Lang Syne?" 

the door burst open and a beautiful boy ran in. 
He capered up the aisle, stood before Father 
Time and Mother Earth and chanted in a 
high, sweet child voice : 

"Hail to the glad New Year I 
All hail with song and cheer! 

Let Hope rise high! 

Oh, do not sigh, 
For Oldyear passed away! 
Let us be glad and gay! 



FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR 137 

Who knows what gladness 

To you I bring? 
Away with sadness! 

Arise and sing I 

Another happy family 

Have Father Time and Mother Earth ; 
As you quite soon will see, 

Of Days there is no dearth. 
They all will soon be yours, 

Be glad you are alive I 
I now present to each of you 

Three hundred and sixty-five 1" 

The little Newyear then passed around the 
favors of the evening — calendars most artisti- 
cally hand-decorated by the clever host and 
hostess with the foregoing rhymes and illus- 
trations of the Time family and their numer- 
ous brood, after which everybody adjourned 
to supper. 

The following toasts were drunk standing: 

"Here's to Father Time, 
The Grand Old Man sublime I 

Here's to Mother Earth, 

May she ever be filled with mirth I 

Here's to the Oldyear gone, 
May he wake to a happier dawril 



138 SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS 

Here's to his spouses four, 
We wish they had been more! 

Here's to their dozen children, 

And their children's children's children. 

Here's to the Happy New Year! 
May he bring much joy to all here ! 

Here's to the days to come! 

May the supply diminish never. 
If we only had enough of them, 

We all would live forever!" 



Note. 

In the description of the Parcel Post 
game on page 60, the statement re- 
garding the mailing of books is no 
longer correct since the passage of the 
new law on March 16, 1914, which per- 
mits books and other printed matter 
to be sent by parcel post. 



